High-power X-band ferrite limiters

Foo Ven-Yee and C.S. Aitchison

Indexing terms:

Ferrite devices, Microwave limiters

Abstract: Two ferrite-limiter configurations, block and slab, are separately investigated experimentally, and
are then combined to give an X-band limited with a 15 W peak threshold power and a maximum limited
power of 50 kW (corresponding to a dynamic range of 35 dB) when measured with a 0-75 MS 1 kHz p.r.f. pulse
(duty cycle 0-0075).

Introduction

The potential use of ferrite limiters followed by diode limiters to replace gaseous transmit-receive (t.r.) cells in radars
is well known. This paper investigates two convenient ferrite
configurations at X-band, and describes a combination of
the two configurations that gives a 50 kW power-limiting
performance combined with an adequately low threshold
power but economises on the volume of ferrite required.
Measurements as a function of frequency are given in
detail.

Sandwich limiter

Allen has reported1 a subsidiary resonance2"4 sandwich

ferrite limiter at C-band which uses 4 laminar pieces of
yi.g. ferrite with a performance that can be summarised as:
Threshold power
Maximum power
Dynamic range
Duty cycle

=
=

20 W
2 x 10 s W

=
=

40 dB
0-0001

The ferrite structure (Fig. 1) is interleaved with alumina.

brass fill

, dielectric
alternating layers
_pf ferrite and
*\_ dielectric

Fig. 1 C-band multislab limiter

After Reference 1

The work described below details an investigation into

the performance obtained at X-band from a sandwich
limiter using y j.g. material. Dynamic range, insertion loss,
volume of ferrite material and operational bandwidth are of
particular interest. The design is extended further by the
addition of a simple prelimiter which extends the maximum
power and dynamic range.
Paper T136M, first received 29th April and in revised form 15th
December 1977
Dr. Foo and Mr. Aitchison are with the Department of Electronics,
Chelsea College, University of London, Pulton Place, London
SW6 5PR, England

The following measurements were obtained from an

X-band tunable magnetron with a pulse length of 0-75/-is
and a p.r.f. of 1 kHz.
2.1

Simple laminar slab configurations

The limiting performance of a laminar slab of yi.g. of

thickness 1 mm and length 38 mm, placed 3-5 mm from the
waveguide wall in WG16,is shown in Fig. 2a, demonstrating
a threshold power of about 150 W and a poor dynamic
range giving a maximum limited power of about 750 W.
This performance is improved by the addition of a single
alumina slab of thickness 0 4 mm on the high-field side of
the ferrite slab as shown in the inset in Fig. 2b. This reduces
the threshold power to about 50 W but otherwise leaves the
limiting characteristic little changed, as shown in curve (i)
of Fig. 2b. The addition of a second alumina slab placed
between the ferrite and the waveguide wall, as shown in the
inset in Fig. 2b, produces only a slight alteration to the
characteristic, which is shown in curve (ii) of Fig. 2b.
Two slabs of ferrite, however, produce a useful
improvement in the limiting characteristic. Fig. 3 shows the
effect of adding a second ferrite slab together with a third
alumina slab (as shown in the inset); the characteristic (i)
has a much flatter behaviour, albeit with a negative slope,
and the threshold has dropped from 50 W for the singleferrite-slab system to 20 W for the double-ferrite-slab
arrangement. The upper limiting power level is lOkW,
giving a dynamic range of 27 dB. This useful increase in
dynamic range is associated with the weaker coupling of the
second ferrite slab to the field by virtue of its proximity to
the waveguide wall.
The effect of a further alumina slab positioned as illustrated in Fig. 3 is shown in curve (ii). The threshold is
reduced to 16W, with little change in the dynamic range.
The insertion loss of both the double ferrite arrangements is
less than 1 dB.
2.2

Frequency dependence of sandwich limiter

The frequency dependence of the 2-slab limiter has been

investigated at fixed magnetic field as a function of frequency! The magnetic field was adjusted for optimum performance at 8-96GHz, and measurements were made at
8-96, 9-0 and 915 GHz, using GEC polycrystalline y.i.g.
PG-175 material. The limiting behaviour at these three
frequencies is shown in Fig. 4, and illustrates that the
dynamic range deteriorates as the frequency is increased.
The specification of a bandwidth for a limiter depends
upon the application; a figure of 50MHz is suggested for

MICROWA VES, OPTICS AND ACOUSTICS, MARCH 1978, Vol. 2, No. 2

37
0308-6976/78/136M-0037

$ 1-50/0

this limiter. The behaviour at 896 GHz can be summarised

as:

=
=
=
<

Threshold power
Maximum limiting power
Dynamic range
Insertion loss

8W
7kW
294 dB
ldB

Table 1 Figures of Merit

Configuration

Frequency

Dynamic
range

GHz

dB

dBcm"

Laminar
Laminar
Sandwich

90
90
8-96

23 0
300
29-4

48-4
34-6
55-8

configuration (il

configuration (ii)
Hdc

10000

J.

,'zero toss

3000
l-3-5mm

^ 1000

Dynamic range/volume

100

30

12345

<u
o 10

oa
a.

Q.

300

,LS

100

10

30

100 300
1000 3000 10000
input power,W

30

Fig. 3
10

10

30

100

-I

300
1000
input power, W
a
1

L_

3000

10000

All
(i)
1
2
3
4
5

Limiting characteristics

slabs 38 mm long
S-slab configuration
Alumina: 0-41 mm thick
Y.I.G.: 100 mm thick
Alumina: 0-72 mm thick
Y.I.G.: 0-41 mm thick
Alumina: 0-41 mm thick

(ii) 6-slab configuration

1 Alumina: 1-00 mm thick
Alumina: 0-41 mm thick
Y.I.G.: 1 0 0 mm thick
Alumina: 0-72 mm thick
Y.I.G.: 0-41 mm thick
Alumina: 0-41 mm thick

zero loss

, f = 9-15GHz

102 10000
(ii)

3000
10
.. _ 99mm

^. 1000
a)
o
a
5 300
a

Iki 61mm
(i)

10
100

-i**

102
103
input power.W

Fig. 4 Limiting performance of configuration

function of frequency

10*

(ii) of Fig. 3 as a

50

2.3

,5Fig. 2

30

100

300
1000 3000
input power, W
b

Limiting characteristics

All slabs 38 mm long

(a) Laminar slab
1 Y13A: 1 0 0 mm thick
(b) (i) Addition of alumina slab
1 Y13A: 1 0 0 m m thick
2 Alumina: 0-4 mm thick
(ii) Addition of second alumina slab
1 Alumina: 0-41 mm thick
2 Y13A: l-00mm thick
3 Alumina: 0-71 mm thick
38

10000

Ferrite volume

A useful figure of merit for a ferrite limiter is the ratio of

dynamic range to ferrite volume. Table 1 compares this
parameter with the laminar structure using single and polycrystalline y.i.g. described by Carter and McGowan.5 The
sandwich structure has the highest figure of merit.
3

Block limiter

An alternative limiter configuration, which has been investigated, is the short block6 of ferrite placed adjacent to the
narrow waveguide wall, as illustrated in Fig. 5a. A block of
thickness 3-5 mm, length 12 mm and full waveguide height
is placed close to the WG16 waveguide wall. The behaviour
of this arrangement is shown in Fig. 6, and illustrates a
critical dependence on contact with the waveguide wall.
MICROWA VES, OPTICS AND ACOUSTICS, MARCH 1978, Vol. 2, No. 2

Contact with the wall produces curve (i), which has a

threshold of 50 W and a poor dynamic range. If the block
is positioned 0-25 mm from the wall, curve (ii) is obtained,
showing a decrease in threshold to about 20 W and nonflat
limiting behaviour to 10 kW. This form of limiter can be
made more attractive by cascading two identical blocks, as
shown in Fig. 5b, both positioned 0-25 mm from the waveguide wall.
The behaviour of such a double-block limiter is shown in
Fig. 7 as a function of block separation at 915 GHz.
A separation of 0-25 mm produces a poor characteristic.
With a separation of 4-9 mm a threshold power of 25 W is
obtained, with limiting behaviour up to lOkW. An increase
in the separation increases the threshold to 45 W but produces a substantially flat characteristic up to 20 kW, giving
a 26-5 dB dynamic range with an insertion loss of 0-2 dB.

mally inefficient, and it is therefore sensible to consider a

combination of the thermally efficient block limiter with
the sandwich limiter, using a single block as a prelimiter
(where most of the heat at high power level will be dissipated). Measurement using the single-block limiter with
reversed magnetic field shows that the threshold power
increases to 1 kW. The arrangement that has been constructed is shown in Fig. 9; there is a separation of 13 mm
between the two limiters.
zero loss
d =

103

/ yA

Ido
fa

/O25mm

in2

y
10

10J

10

10*

input power. W
Fig. 6 Limiting performance of single-block configuration
(i) Block close to wall
(ii) Gap of 0-2 5 mm from wall

z?ro loss /
/
/

103

102

d=025mm
/'
/%-9mm
/ '

/
[

/i3mm

10

103
input power, W

10

10*

105

Fig. 7 Limiting performance of double-block configuration as a

function of block separation
f = 9-30 GHz//

Fig. 5 Block limiters

a Single-ferrite-block limiter
b Double-ferrite-block limiter

Fig. 8 shows the limiting characteristic of this arrangement as a function of frequency at fixed magnetic field and
at a separation of 4-9mm. A decrease in frequency from
915 GHz to 9 0 GHz increases the threshold to 80 W and
produces a flatter characteristic with a deep hole at about
15kW. An increase in the frequency from 9 15 GHz to
9 -30 GHz reduces the threshold to below 10 W but produces an unacceptable characteristic. The insertion loss was
measured as 0-4 dB at each of the three frequencies.
4

Composite limiter

The sandwich limiter has the disadvantage that it is ther-

10

OOGHz

'zero loss

fc" 10 2

10

10

102

103
input power.W

10*

105

Fig. 8 Limiting performance of double-block limiter with separation of 4- 9 mm as a function of frequency

MICROWA VES, OPTICS AND ACOUSTICS, MARCH 1978, Vol. 2, No. 2

39

The behaviour of this composite limiter has been investigated at fixed magnetic field at frequencies of 8-7, 8-96,
9-0 and 9 15 GHz, after optimising at 8-96 GHz; the results
are plotted in Fig. 10, and show that at 8-96GHz the
threshold power is 15 W and the maximum power is 50 kW,
giving a dynamic range of 35 dB. The insertion loss is
0-9 dB. A decrease in the frequency to 8-7 GHz reduces the
maximum power to 25 kW and increases the threshold to
20 W. An increase in the frequency from 8-96 GHz to
9-0 GHz produces little change in the characteristic. Increasing the frequency further reduces the threshold to 6 W and
the maximum power to about 1 kW. A comparison with
Fig. 4 shows that the frequency behaviour is similar to that
of the sandwich limiter; the effect of the single-block prelimiter has been to increase the maximum power by about
8 dB. The insertion-loss measurements are shown in Fig. 10.
The bandwidth of the composite limiter depends upon
the following-stage diode limiter. A conservative figure
seems to be 100MHz.
No change of characteristic at high power level due to
heating effects was observed at room temperature with this
arrangement.
YIG

alumina

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Science Research Council for

providing a research grant to support this work, and J.
Clarke of RSRE for the use of test equipment.
''zero loss

10"

10

10

102

T
1016mm

dB

8-96

0-92
1-20
2-60
100

8-70
Design of composite-slab and single-block limiter

Conclusions

A sandwich limiter at X-band has been designed and tested.

At 8-96 GHz its performance is as follows: threshold power
8 W, maximum power 7 kW, insertion loss 1 dB and
dynamic range 29-4 dB.
A block limiter has also been designed and tested. At
9-15 GHz its performance is as follows: threshold power
45 W, maximum power 20kW, insertion loss 0-2 dB and
dynamic range 26-5 dB.
A combination of the two techniques has produced a
limiter whose performance at 8-96 GHz is as follows:
threshold power 15W, maximum power 50 kW, insertion
loss 0-9 dB and dynamic range 35 dB. The bandwidth is
estimated at 100 MHz.

40

10*

Insertion loss

GHz
900
915

103
i n p u t power, W

Fig. 10 Limiting performance of composite limiter as a function

of frequency

YIG 1mm thick

Frequency

Fig. 9

/87GHz
|6-96GHz

References

ALLEN, J.L.: 'A compact subsidiary resonance limiter', IEEE

Trans., 1972, MTT-20, pp. 193-194
SUHL, H.: 'Theory of ferromagnetic resonance at high signal
powers',/. Phys. & Chem. Solids, 1957, 1, pp. 209-227
KRUPKE, W.F., HARTWICK, T.S., and WEISS, M.T.: 'Solidstate X-band power limiters', IRE Trans., 1961, MTT-9,
pp. 472-480
SIEKANOWICZ, W.W., PAGHONE, R.W., and STEIHOFF, R.:
'A 100 kW X-band ferrite diode limiter', Microwave J., 1973, 16,
pp. 53-58
CARTER, J.L., and McGOWAN, J.W.: 'A laminar subsidiary
resonance limiter', IEEE Trans., 1970, MTT-18, pp. 652-654
CARTER, J.L., and McGOWAN, J.W.: 'X-band ferrite varactor
limiter', ibid., 1969,MTT-17,pp. 231-2

MICROWA VES, OPTICS AND ACOUSTICS, MARCH 1978, Vol. 2, No. 2