Pulsed power operation of power limiters integrating a phase transition material

Abstract

We present the operation of microwave power limiters based on reversible phase transition of vanadium dioxide thin films integrated on coplanar waveguides submitted to incident pulsed peak power at 10 GHz. During the pulse on-time, the fabricated devices can be reversibly driven by the incident signal from a high transmission state to a low-transmission level on a relatively short timescale (response times as low as 4 μs for incident peak powers of 35 dBm). The broadband operation and the simplicity of fabrication and integration of these devices, their potential for faster response times, make them attractive as protective devices against continuous or transient RF power.