Ever since hearing about ferromagnetic (i.e. ferrite) or ferroelectric (i.e. ceramic) shock lines, I've wanted to make one... Anyone ever try? Looks stupid easy, I must be missing something:
Get like two feet of ferrite beads (fraction of a cent each, 200 x
0.25" is 50" = 4' 2" long plus wasted space, and costs just a few bucks), string onto a fair sized wire (20AWG or so?), string the necklace into a hunk of copper or brass tubing (1/4" or so) to make a coaxial line, and... run pulses through the damn thing! It's just that easy, I guess, and it should make sub-ns pulses first time, every time, no?The ceramic equivalent... I think researchers like to use a biscuit of barium titanate, but we aren't so picky... wouldn't a big stinking row of ceramic caps between two traces, above a ground plane, work just as well? Get say 200 x 0.1uF 6.3V in 0603 size let's say, the most nonlinear grade, charge it and short the sucker with a nice IRFZ34 or so... MOSFET might do 10ns on a good day, should come out 1ns or sharper I guess?
I wonder if anyone's done this with other nonlinear elements... silicon, perhaps? Hey Jim, next free wafer you get, turn part of it into a one foot long, 1mm wide varactor diode and tell us the results, would 'ya? ;-)
Tim