A Theoretical Study of an Energy Storage Effect in Nonlinearly loaded Receiving Structures

Receiving antenna structures that include nonlinear loads may exhibit remarkable behavior if they are illuminated by electromagnetic waves. Former studies revealed that an energy storage effect can be observed if loads with strong nonlinear characteristics are included in an antenna structure. This particular effect is visible as an approximate DC-component included in the signal measured at the antenna’s feed. A special behavior occurs when such a receiving structure is subject to a short transient excitation. We can state that the approximate DC-component is measurable for a duration that largely exceeds the decay time of the oscillations caused by the transient interference. In this contribution, the effect will be analyzed using macromodeling techniques in order to compute currents and voltages at nonlinear loads with the aim to provide a deeper understanding regarding this energy storage effect. Finally it will be shown that besides the fact that such an energy storage property is a major issue regarding EMC, it may be exploited for the measurement of pulsed excitations.