Semiconductor Switching and Limiting Using 3 Db Short Slot (Hybrid) Couplers

摘要

The report describes and X-band shunt mode semiconductor switch and limiter using silver-bonded germanium varactors and 3 db short slot (hybrid) couplers. When the balanced arms or a 3 db short slot coupler are terminated in perfectly matched loads, the output arm will be thoroughly isolated from the input arm; when the balanced arms are short-circuited, the output arm will be directly coupled to the input arm with little or no loss. Voltage dependent variations in the impedance level of silver-bonded diodes are used to switch between matched and mismatched conditions providing isolation or low insertion loss. Details of an externally biased semiconductor switch and a passive power limiter are included. (Author)