Effect of pulse width on thermal effect of microwave pulse on PIN limiter

The PIN diode under high power microwave is simulated by solving the semiconductor equations numerically. The influence of pulse width on the diode’s burnout is studied. The results show that the pulse power for burnout is nearly inversely proportional to the pulse width, if the pulse width is between several nanoseconds and microseconds. This phenomenon is also analyzed on the basis of Leenov’s model and Thevinen’s theorem. If the pulse width is changed from nanoseconds to microseconds, the thermal effect of the device changes from thermal insulation to thermal conduction and the absorbed power changes from proportional to the incident power to proportion to its square root, both of which lead to the influence of the pulse width.