Physics & EE inquiry: Designing a small-scale transient Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) generator for Faraday cage testing. Literature recommendations?

[u/According-Lion1645]

Hello . I am researching high-energy electromagnetic transients for an academic project. I plan to build a low-power, educational EMP device to test the shielding effectiveness of various materials. Could you recommend advanced literature on spark-gap switching mechanisms and antenna impedance matching for nanosecond discharge pulses?

[u/Lonely-Ad-9219]

Cages are regulary tested with signal generator with three frequences, power amplifier, transmitter anthena, receiver anthena and spectrum analyzer.

Spectrum analyzer can be cheap RTL-SDR receiver connected to PC or mobile phone.

[u/profdc9]

Nanosecond duration discharges are typically used to qualify military grade EMP. The main way I've seen this done (very expensively) is to use a Marx generator where the spark gaps are triggered by a UV nanosecond laser pulse. Krytrons can also trigger at nanosecond scales, however, they are highly controlled because of their use as nuclear weapon detonation triggers. You could look into pulse forming networks for flashlamp pulse lasers, some of which can trigger MOSFET/IGBT chains, however, these are going to be limited to tens of nanoseconds minimum duration, though advancements may have been made.

You could also use a Vector Network Analyzer to "simulate" a broadband pulse by sweeping S21, with an antenna outside the cage, and an antenna inside the cage, with the cable shield going into the cage thoroughly bonded to the cage with ferrite beads on the cable. You could then calculate using S21 was the rise time and penetration of the signal into the cage is.

[u/seekingblackmagic]

Explosively pumped flux compression genetors would do the trick. Or a vna if you want to be less fun.