An Experimental Study of the Effect of Microwave Pulses on Personal Computer Performance

The performance of a personal computer affected by microwave pulses is investigated experimentally in a wide range of pulse durations and repetition frequencies. The shortest nanosecond microwave pulses were obtained using the method of resonance time compression. The criterial radiation levels causing computer malfunction are analyzed as functions of the duration and repetition frequency of microwave pulses. It is shown that, when the pulse duration is as low as a few nanoseconds, the effect of the pulses increases with the repetition frequency.