Comments on: "Novel" receiver to protect electronics against electromagnetic pulse attack

Defense contract kick-starts electromagnetic pulse-tolerant receiver program

[silenthorn]

What a Volt per square centimeter measure? Do you mean Volt per centimeter (measure of electric field), or a Watt per square centimeter (measure of intensity)? I assume the author is trying to represent electric field, since a high electric field can cause insulation (like air) to break down and an arc to form (think Jacob's ladder). This is what causes electronic devices to fail.

The high electric field is accompanied by a high intensity, but it is really the electric field that does the damage.

[UITD]

What good is it if you cant protect much MORE FRAGILE, skin/flesh/organs, of humans, who rely on that equipment?

[mgallutia]

The point of protecting computer, radar, and communications equipment from an EMP attack is that a single nuclear weapon, delivered, for example, via a missile fired from a ship off the shore of the U.S., could send the U.S. back into the 1800's, and leave 300,000,000 million people to fend for themselves without the technological means we now enjoy. It takes very little imagination to grasp the magnitude of the human suffering which would result.

[alegr]

Well, other information says that the pulse amplitude is up to 100 kV/m, not per centimeter (or "square centemeter"). Note that air breaks at 30 kV/cm (3000 kV/m).