Method and Apparatus for Nondestructive Testing of a Gas Discharge Tube
AssigneeSpawar Systems Center Pacific
InventorsDaniel Wing Shum Tam, Gregory Alan Larson, Christopher Agustin Dilay, David Russell Hilton
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for nondestructive testing of a gas discharge tube (GDT) comprising: electrically connecting a first terminal of the GDT to a first port of a vector network analyzer (VNA); electrically connecting a second terminal of the GDT to a second port of the VNA; measuring S parameters with the VNA; determining GDT capacitance and insertion loss based on the measured S parameters; comparing the determined capacitance and insertion loss of the GDT with a threshold value to determine if the GDT is functional.
Claims20
A method for nondestructive testing of a gas discharge tube (GDT) comprising the following steps:
- electrically connecting a first terminal of the GDT to a first port of a vector network analyzer (VNA);
- electrically connecting a second terminal of the GDT to a second port of the VNA;
- measuring S parameters with the VNA;
- determining GDT capacitance based on the measured S parameters;
- comparing the determined capacitance of the GDT with a threshold value to determine if the GDT is functional.
A gas discharge tube (GDT) tester comprising:
- a vector network analyzer (VNA) having a first port and a second port;
- a processor operatively coupled to the VNA;
- a test fixture configured to allow a first terminal of a test GDT to be electrically connected to the first port and a second terminal of the test GDT to be electrically connected to the second port;
- and
- wherein the VNA is configured to measure the S11 and S22 parameters of the test GDT, and the processor is configured to calculate the capacitances of the test GDT at the first and second ports based on the measured S parameters, and wherein the processor is further configured to compare the calculated capacitances with a threshold value to determine if the test GDT is functional.
A method for nondestructively testing a first gas discharge tube (GDT) comprising the following steps:
- a. electrically connecting a first terminal of the first GDT to a first port of a vector network analyzer (VNA);
- b. electrically connecting a second terminal of the first GDT to a second port of the VNA;
- c. measuring S parameters with the VNA to obtain frequency-dependent reflection and transmission properties of the first GDT;
- d. determining first GDT capacitance at the first and second ports based on the measured S parameters related to the reflection properties;
- e. determining first GDT insertion loss at the first and second ports based on the measured S parameters related to the transmission properties;
- and
- f. comparing the determined capacitance and insertion loss of the first GDT with threshold capacitance and insertion loss values respectively to determine if the first GDT is functional.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.