Sharif Digital Repository

Nonlinear transmission lines (NLTLs) are one of the most prominent solid-state sources of high-power RF pulses. However, there is no integrated mathematical basis, which predicts adequately the generated waveforms on an NLTL and those delivered to the load. This analysis is required for designing and optimizing these transmission lines. Most works in this area are related to experimental studies and results. In this paper, we have developed a theoretical basis, which predicts all the required characteristics of the generated RF pulses on a lossy NLTL. The RF amplitude, the maximum voltage, and the central frequency of the generated pulses at each node of an NLTL are formulated. All the... 

High-voltage power supplies (HVPSs) are widely used to supply vacuum tubes. The amount of delivered energy from the HVPS to the tube is an important issue during the vacuum arc in the tube. The conventional protection mechanism consists of a shunt crowbar which diverts the fault current from the tube to itself as a parallel path. The crowbar circuit is usually built of the devices without the turn-off capability. It is a drawback since the output of the power supply is shortened for a long time. Thus, the restoration time of these power supplies is excessive. This demerit can have detrimental effects on mission-critical applications. In this paper, the insulated-gate bipolar transistor... 

High voltage power supplies (HVPS) are widely used to supply vacuum tubes. Regarding to their high efficiency, resonant converters are a choice of HVPS structure. In this application, HVPS is faced with wide variation of the load power. On the other hand, output voltage regulation over wide load range is essential. However, there are several problems dealing with resonant converters such as output voltage regulation and low-efficient performance in a light load. In this paper, a control scheme for a series-parallel resonant converter is presented. This scheme regulates the output voltage of the converter over load variation range. A variable inductor placed as the series inductor in the... 

Microwave power modules are the result of integration of vacuum tubes and their respective power supplies. In these modules, volume and weight are very important factors because the modules are used in many portable applications. There are many parameters that they affect the volume and weight of the microwave power module. High voltage issues are one of these factors because the required voltages of vacuum tubes are high voltage. Thermal management relates to the module volume directly. In high-voltage high-frequency converters as power supplies of vacuum tubes, parasitic elements of the transformer are dominant. Tuning the transformer parameters leads to variation in the volume of the... 

The ceramic fracture in output RF window is one of the most important failure factors in high power microwave sources. Fast protection systems are used to protect the source. The methods for determining the required protection response time are conservative and rough. In this paper, an investigation is presented about the twin growth in the ceramic of RF window in faulty condition. It is shown that the twin growth in ceramic can be a reliable figure of merit for the response time calculation of the microwave source protection system  

Vacuum tubes are widely used for various applications. These vacuum tubes are supplied by high voltage power supplies. The amount of delivered energy from the high voltage power supply to the vacuum tube is an important issue during the vacuum arc in the tube. The protection mechanism consists of a shunt crowbar which diverts the fault current from the tube to itself as a parallel path. Detection of the vacuum arc is crucial and only one sensor is usually employed to detect the vacuum arc. This characteristic intensifies the interference susceptibility of the vacuum arc diagnosis system in a noisy environment. As a result of the noise, the arc detection system can report false alarms. False... 

Vacuum arc is one of the most important failure factors of the vacuum tubes. The amount of delivered energy from the high-voltage dc power supply to the vacuum tube is an important issue during the vacuum arc in the tube. Vacuum arc acts as a short-circuit fault (SCF) at the power supply output. The majority of converters use a single current sensor to measure only the converter output current for detecting the SCF. However, the sensor may provide unreliable data because of the noise effect. Application of a low-pass filter reduces the noise effect. Regarding the delay of the low-pass filter, the interval of arc detection increases and more energy is delivered to the tube. In this article, a... 

High-voltage power supplies (HVPSs) are widely used to drive vacuum tubes, inherently susceptible to vacuum arc faults. Owing to the considerable cost of vacuum tubes, the HVPS should enjoy a reliable, fast protection mechanism. A common protection mechanism against vacuum arc faults is the shunt crowbar. The crowbar diverts the energy stored in the elements of the HVPS through itself as a parallel path, thereby protecting vacuum tubes from irrecoverable damages. Among all types of the shunt crowbar, the thyristor-based crowbar along with the fault current limiter (FCL) resistors attracts more attention because of its more reliable operation. The absence of the comprehensive design procedure... 

The safe operating condition for the vacuum tubes is very important and critical since they are very expensive and delicate. Providing limited short circuit energy for the vacuum tube and fast transferring from the short circuit to the nominal operation state are absolutely necessary. Extant protection strategies threat the availability of the vacuum tubes. In addition, they cannot completely protect the tube due to the delay of the fault detection system. This article proposes a high voltage (HV) short circuit fault current limiter which can limit the short circuit energy of the system inherently. The proposed structure activates automatically when the current exceeds the predetermined... 

Vacuum arc is one of the most important failure factors of the vacuum tubes. The amount of delivered energy from the high-voltage dc power supply to the vacuum tube is an important issue during the vacuum arc in the tube. Vacuum arc acts as a short-circuit fault (SCF) at the power supply output. The majority of converters use a single current sensor to measure only the converter output current for detecting the SCF. However, the sensor may provide unreliable data because of the noise effect. Application of a low-pass filter reduces the noise effect. Regarding the delay of the low-pass filter, the interval of arc detection increases and more energy is delivered to the tube. In this article, a... 

Alumina is widely used as a vacuum ceramic separator in the pillbox-type output window of high-power electron tubes. The fracture of alumina is one of the most important factors in the failure of these tubes. In this article, the fracture process of alumina in the pillbox-type window of high-power electron tubes is assessed microscopically. The investigation shows the twinning phenomenon in the fractured alumina. The reason for initiating and propagating twins is also investigated. An increase in the alumina temperature decreases the required stress level for generating twins. The overheating condition occurs due to an impedance mismatch in the pillbox-type window. Experimental and numerical... 

Electron guns are used as the electron sources in high-power electron tubes. The generated electron beam in electric guns passes through an aperture at the center of the anode. Since the electron beam has considerable kinetic energy, any collision between the electron beam and the anode aperture edge damages the electron gun. Therefore, electron guns are designed to meet the compatibility between the diameters of the electron beam and the anode aperture. However, this compatibility is disrupted during the transient time interval of the gun's power supply. In this article, the cause of failure of the electron gun of high-power electron tubes is investigated for the transient interval of the... 

This paper presents a novel blood pressure (BP) estimation method based on pulse transit time (PTT) and pulse arrival time (PAT) to estimate the systolic BP (SBP) and the diastolic BP (DBP). A data acquisition hardware is designed for high-resolution sampling of phonocardiogram (PCG), photoplethysmogram, and electrocardiogram (ECG). PCG and ECG perform as the proximal timing reference to obtain PTT and PAT indices, respectively. In order to derive a BP estimator model, a calibration procedure, including a supervised physical exercise, is conducted for each individual, which causes changes in their BP, and then, a number of reference BPs are measured alongside the acquisition of the signals...