Measuring the transition switching speed of a semiconductor-based photoconductive switch using RF techniques

This paper presents a new technique for measuring the switching speed of reconfigurable antenna systems driven by semiconductor-based photoconductive switches. Laser diodes are integrated within a stripline transmission line in order to efficiently illuminate the incorporated photoconductive switches. An experimental setup and measurement technique for estimating the ON↔OFF transition speed of the photoconductive switches, driven by a pulsed laser source, are presented.