2.

45 GHz Waveguide Plasma Generation in Cylindrical Structures

Graziano Cerri, Roberto De Leo, Valter Mariani Primiani, Paola Russo, Eleonora Vecchioni
Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Biomedica, Elettronica e delle
Telecomunicazioni, Ancona, 60131, Italy
Abstract
A surfaguide device was optimized, realized and
used for the ignition of a plasma column to be used as a radiating
structure. A plasma diagnostic technique was also develop ed to
evaluate the plasma column length with respect to the power
supplied. These measurements highlighted that plasma antenna
properties are strongly affected by the pump signal and therefore
this signal has to be optimized in order to have the highest
conductivity. Finally, the efficiency of the column used as an
antenna was evaluated.
-

Index Terms
Surfaguide, plasma ignition, plasma antennas,
antenna efficiency, plasma conductivity.
-

I.

INTRODUCTION

In the past, plasma was produced by DC or high frequency

discharges by two electrodes at opposite ends of the column.
In 1982 a new way of producing microwave and RF
discharges based on electromagnetic surface waves to sustain
the discharge was proposed [1]: in this way plasma could be
driven just from one end of the column and no electrodes
should be more needed. Several surface-waves plasma sources
have been developing: in [2] a surface wave is launched by a
capacitive coupling applying an intense field between a copper
ring placed around the tube and a ground plane. The
surfaguide is another device, firstly proposed in [3] , that
could be used as plasma source, and it is by far the simplest of
the surface-wave launchers: it is a wave-guide device able to
excite a surface wave that propagates along the tube axis
providing the power required to ignite the plasma.
With respect to other plasma sources the main advantage is
the possibility of using the frequency of 2450 MHz for the
pump signal because at this frequency high power is available
with low cost. Moreover, the surfaguide is the most suitable
device to propagate a power signal at this frequency, confining
its electromagnetic field in a closed structure, it is simple to
realize, and matching stubs can be easily inserted in the
design.
In recent years, the possibility to create a confined plasma
column has determined a growing scientific interest in plasma
antennas, mainly because of their peculiar and completely
innovative properties with respect to the traditional metallic
antennas as demonstrated by several studies [4]-[9]. A plasma
antenna can be rapidly switched on or off by applying bursts
of power to a tube filled with a low pressure gas: the supplied
power ionizes the gas providing the conductive medium to the
RF signal to be radiated.
This behavior makes plasma
antennas suitable for the production of low radar cross section
elements; moreover, they allow the geometric reconfiguration
of an array using simply an electrical control of the ignited

978-1-4244-7732-6/101$26.00 2010 IEEE

elements; also the effective antenna length of the column can

be easily changed by controlling the power supplied with the
pump signal; finally, the electromagnetic characteristics of
plasma can be used to realize frequency selective shields. In
the present paper a complete characterization of the surfaguide
as feeding network for plasma antenna application is
presented: the aim of this study is to propose measurements
set-up and describe the experimental procedures to
characterize both the surfaguide system and the radiated signal
network. In particular a 2.45 GHz pump signal is used for
antenna ignition, and the frequency of 430 MHz is chosen for
the radiated signal, because both frequencies belong to the
ISM frequency set (the 430 MHz is not allowed outside of
Europe).
The paper presents also a way to quantifY two critical
parameters in using plasma column as antennas that are the
effective length of the column, i.e. its part where the
conductivity is sufficiently high to guarantee a metallic
behavior, and the efficiency compared to a fully metal
element.
II.

SURFAGUIDE DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION

A plasma column is created by applying a pump signal to a

tube containing a gas; the gas is ionized by a strong
microwave electric field applied at one termination of the tube
by a surfaguide device. The surfaguide launches an
azimuthally symmetric electromagnetic surface wave that
propagates along the tube creating and sustaining the plasma
column. Figure 1 shows the longitudinal section of the
surfaguide: it consists of two trunks La of a standard
waveguide WR340, two transitions L}, and a waveguide L2
with a reduced height. The guide is terminated by a moving
short, whose length Ls can be varied for matching.
A tapered section is inserted along the waveguide to increase
the electric field strength in the reduced height region without
affecting the impedance matching. Two holes along the
central axis of the reduced height guide allow the glass tube to
be inserted: a commercially available tube designed for
lighting purposes was used to create the plasma column.
The structure presented in Figure I has to be optimized for
the frequency 2.45 GHz: the surfaguide geometrical
parameters need to be carefully chosen in order to have a very
intense field coinciding with the holes where the tube is
inserted.
The optimization of the surfaguide dimensions was achieved
using the commercial software CST Microwave Studio [10] to
simulate electromagnetic field behavior before plasma
ignition.

1032

IMS 2010

internal face of the glass tube, at the tube centre. First of all a
numerical investigation was performed for the field intensity
with hole diameter D and fixed h, LI and L2 and, as expected,
this showed that the narrower D is, the more intense the field
is; therefore, D is chosen as small as possible to allow the tube
to be inserted. The behavior of the field as a function of h for
fixed D, LI and L2 (Table I) is more interesting: a reduction in
the guide height increases the field inside the tube, but beyond
the optimal value a further reduction does not improve the
field strength in the tube.

D
h

"'======'J

1.01
Fig. 1.

TABLE I

Lall..,

L.

MAXIMUM ELECTRIC FIELD INTENSITY AS A FUNCTION OF THE

GUIDE HEIGHT

mm.

Longitudinal section of the surfaguide. The vertical tube

contains plasma to be ignited.

(mm]

The tube is a glass (tr

4 ) cylinder with thickness

LI

=1

mm, diameter d=16 mm, filled with a dielectric having a

relative dielectric constant tr 1 . Figure 2 shows the electric

D= 19 mm, L1= 80 rnm , L2= 80

FOR FIXED

hlh

lEI

lEI

Ls

(mm]

guide

[VIm]

lEI

tube

wall

[VIm11

tube
rntre.1
VIm

21,6

112

66

1320

1340

1310

13,5

5116

68

1630

1470

1300

field in the longitudinal section of the surfaguide: the TEIO

field of the waveguide is well-coupled with the axial TM field
of the surface wave along the glass tube that ignites the
plasma: as /p(d-2L1)12 = 1.7 GHz'cm < 2 GHz'cm (where

fp 'is the plasma

frequency) only the first TM mode of the

surface wave is expected to be excited.

VI.

10,8

114

70

1720

1500

1240

8,1

3116

72

1970

1390

1080

5,4

118

75

2150

1230

840

Table 2 shows the behavior of the electric field as a function

of the taper length and the final short termination distance:
also in this case the optimal value was found, and finally the
design parameters were set: D=19 mm, h= 10.8 mm, LI=80
mm.

2629
1889

TABLE II

1325
'Ii

'

-"7"
, ,"""
/ ,""
,,'-A
r.-T"
l ""T
l-;l""lr-rl-rl-l.r
J

.
,
.

Fig. 2.

/,
/,
/,
"
/,

/,
/,
/,
/,
/,

II
1\
A
1\
1\

A & A A .l .l .l ..
A ;. A .l .l .l ....
A ..... A A A .. .4
A A A A 4 4 "
A A ...... .4 .4 ..

t
/

/
I

.
I

A
A
/,
I,

1
,
, ,
A /
1 A
" I,
/. /.

I
I.
"
A
,.
,

..

,.

<

MAXIMUM ELECTRIC FIELD INTENSITY AS A FUNCTION OF THE

GUIDE TRANSITION AREA

393
ZI.

mm, L2=80 mm.

91.9

I
I,
1
A
/.
,.

, , , -4
I
-----'=
-" "-,,,.
I, II
1--,..
l -rl....
. I
., &,.
& """
... . """
1\"""
l..
4 ...... .l .. ;. 1 1\ /, 1\
A A
"A
............ A A 1\ /, /,
A..
...4 A A A A A A 1\ /, 1\
/, A
.l" A"" ;. A " " /, I,
/' " t \ .. 4 ..... ;., A 1\ 1\ 1\ I.

:. :.:: ::p

Longitudinal section of the surfaguide in the coupling

region with the glass tube: the simulated electric field is normalized

LI

FOR FIXED

lEI

D=19 mm, h= 10.8

lEI

Ls

[mm]

(mm]

guide

[V/ml

tube
centre

60

91

1640

1430

1210

70

79

1680

1480

1260

(VIm]

tube

lEI

LI

wall

rV/ml

80

68

1720

1500

1270

90

58

1640

1450

1240

100

48

1650

1430

1190

to 1 W of incident power.

A parametric investigation of the field behavior was

numerically carried out to determine the best values of the
hole diameter D, guide height h, and transition length LI; field
values were normalized to 1 W of incident power and Ls was
set to get the maximum field which corresponds to the tube
axis. To compare different situations the electric field was
evaluated at three points: in the reduced height guide, on the

978-1-4244-7732-6/101$26.00 2010 IEEE

1033

After realizing the surfaguide, the 2.45 GHz pump signal

network was developed (Figure 3). The power needed to
ionize the gas was supplied by a magnetron generator; an
isolator was inserted to prevent the high reflected power from
arriving at the signal generator and a directional coupler was
used to monitor the incident and reflected power.
The minimum power necessary to ignite a small portion of
plasma in the tube region crossing the waveguide is 2 W: on

IMS 2010

plasma is ignited just for a certain height, then the coil has
been moved along the column to appreciate how plasma state
varies: as the distance from the surfaguide increases, R
becomes smaller, and in correspondence to the position where
the conductivity is no more significant (28 cm in Figure 5) the
real part R is the same as measured when no pump signal is
applied: this position determines the plasma column height.

increasing the power it is possible to notice that the plasma

column height also increases. The set-up shown in Figure 3
was used to investigate the non-linear behavior of a plasma
column as a function of the power: this aspect strongly affects
the plasma antenna characteristics, in particular, efficiency
and column height.
, - SO;",;", moo.

Magnetron

,,::,:;;,;

3 - Isolator
4

Triple stub tuner

- - - - - - -;'{:--

30

Plasma off

5 - Waveguide to coax transition

6

Waveguide double directiomJl

coupIer

Coax switch

Spectrum analyzer

.. .l .l .l .l ..

c::::J Plasrra on

-=
0

IX

Fig. 3.

c::::J Plasrra off

20

_11

10

Pump signal generation chain: all cables are RG2 14/U.

III.

PLASMA COLUMN HEIGHT MEASUREMENT

120

150

Input impedance real part vs. probe position

along the

30

60

90

f[MHz]

A direct measurement of the plasma column height H is not

possible. In fact a simple visual inspection of the light emitted
by plasma [7] to evaluate H is susceptible to a great
measurement uncertainty. A loop probe was designed to be
inserted around the tube: the probe consists of a copper coil,
connected to a network analyzer, fig. 4. The probe input
impedance Z R + jX depends on the material wrapped by
the coil, which acts as a transformer: in particular R depends
on the power dissipated in the plasma because of the currents
induced by the probe itself. The idea is to relate R to the
plasma state which coincides with the point where the probe is
positioned.
=

Fig. 5.

column: the red line (circles) corresponds to the transition region,

corresponding to 24 cm.

Figure 6 shows the experimental results for the plasma

column height compared with those obtained with a different
feeding network [7]. In both situations the column length is
proportional to the square root of the power; the values
difference is due to the different pump signal networks, gas
pressure, and composition; moreover, in the present case the
column height is determined by measuring a significant
electrical parameter instead of a simple visual inspection.

60

::c
30
Fig. 4. Loop probe for plasma diagnostic put around the glass tube.

To make the method reliable, it is important to work at

frequencies sufficiently lower than the loop resonant
frequency. In this way the contribution of its radiation
resistance can be neglected with respect to the contribution of
plasma conductivity. As a consequence the frequency range
for the network analyzer signal wasf<150 MHz, and its port
was protected by a 1.5 GHz low pass filter against the 2.45
GHz pump signal. The input impedance was firstly measured
when no pump power is applied to the gas tube. Then the
pump power has been switched on and the gas inside the tube
was ionized. Supplying a fixed pump power to the column, the

978-1-4244-7732-6/101$26.00 2010 IEEE

1034

O --------
o

20

40

60

Absorbed Power
Fig. 6.

80

100

W I

Plasma column height as a function of the absorbed power.

IV. EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENT

The plasma column can be efficiently used as the medium

IMS 2010

for an RF signal to be radiated. However, plasma conductivity

is not as high as that of metal and therefore plasma antenna
efficiency compared with the efficiency of a traditional
metallic element has to be evaluated. The procedure consists
in measuring the field radiated by a plasma column, Figure 7.

its conductivity, therefore, work is in progress to measure the

exact conductivity profile of the column using a set-up similar
to that used for the height measurement. A proper calibration
procedure is under investigation to correlate impedance
measurements to plasma local conductivity, and results will be
presented at the conference.

Posion 1

osion 2

V.

The designed surfaguide reveals an efficient pump power

source for plasma ignition. The 2.45 GHz frequency is
particularly suitable to this purpose because high power
generators are available at a relatively low cost; moreover, it
belongs to the ISM frequencies set. A plasma diagnostic
technique has been developed to determine the relationship
between the plasma column height and the absorbed power.
The same method will be used to recover the plasma
conductivity profile. Finally, the efficiency of the column used
as an antenna was evaluated.

Posrtion 4

Fig. 7.

CONCLUSION

Efficiency measurement set-up.

A 430 MHz signal was applied to the plasma column

through a capacitive coupler described in [2]. During the first
stage, measurements were carried out after switching on the
plasma element with 25 W of pump power, which allows the
complete ignition of the column. The plasma column was then
removed and substituted with a copper tube of the same
length; the pump signal was switched off because not needed
and the signal to be radiated was coupled to the copper
element in the same way as the plasma column. Results of the
power measured by the spectrum analyzer for the plasma and
the copper elements in four different positions are reported in
table III with the obtained efficiency TJ.

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I
2
3
4

-49.4
-48.2
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-47.4

-52 . 4
-51.1
-50.4
-50.3

Average 11 [dB]

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978-1-4244-7732-6/101$26.00 2010 IEEE

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Moisan,

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TABLE III
SENSOR RECEIVED POWER AND EFFICIENCY

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IMS 2010