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Determining the exact capacities of the components of the pulse forming network of the Blumlein based single pulse forming line (SPFL) machines at AWE is important when constructing detailed circuit models. It is often difficult to get reliable direct electrical measurements due to the scale of these machines, so calculated values have to be used. A 2D electrostatic code has been used to model a number...
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In December 2004 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of 7.5 MeV X-rays for irradiation of food products. The increased efficiency for treatment at 7.5 MeV (versus the previous maximum allowable X-ray energy of 5 MeV) will have a significant impact on processing rates and, therefore, reduce the per-package cost of irradiation using X-rays. Titan Pulse Sciences Division is developing...
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The increasing demand for clean drinking water has significantly intensified the need for long lifetime, inexpensive water sterilization systems. The notably high lifetime, compact size, reliability and repetition-rates of magnetic pulse compressors present them as a promising alternative to the existing circuits used for PEF applications. The application of these systems for the purification of water...
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The Gatling Marx generator system has been previously discussed for its ability to deliver energy from multiple generators into a single cable with demonstrations of the Gatling Marx. New efforts with the system bring the need for a modular and compact design, high repetition rate capability, and enhanced controller capabilities, including control over the charge voltage, pressure regulator, and trigger...
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Many applications involving compact and portable systems for generating high power electromagnetic fields depend on the enabling pulsed high voltage technology. This paper describes a system that is able to produce nanosecond rise time pulses with voltage exceeding 500 kV. It is based on a pulsed resonant Tesla transformer, and requires also a pulse forming line, a fast spark-gap output switch, and...
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A compact MV Marx generator has been previously presented for its basic performance. This generator is based on a 40-stage design and has been demonstrated to deliver more than 850 kV onto a 50 Omega cable. Work has continued on this generator to improve its performance, namely with charging efficiency and control, and new efforts are aimed at developing integrated and modular loads. This paper discusses...
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This paper presents experimental results of the foil temperature on the rep-rated electron beam pumped KrF laser during 50-shot bursts at 1 Hz and 5 Hz. The experiments demonstrate improved convective cooling of the foil during repetitive operation by confining the recirculating laser gas to flow along the hibachi foils.
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We designed and build a rapid capacitor charger for 10 Hz, 500 J/shot operation of a low-inductance, compact Marx generator. The charger uses a hard-switched IGBT H-Bridge Inverter, which drives a 30 kHz, nano- crystalline step-up transformer. The transformer, in addition to the high-voltage rectifier and a trigger- transformer are contained in a section which is filled with transformer oil. The main...
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Diversified Technologies, Inc. (DTI) has designed several solid-state architectures suitable for use in the International Linear Collider (ILC) modulators, including a transformer-coupled design, a hard switch, and a solid- state Marx bank. Transformer-coupled modulators for ILC have already been demonstrated by Fermilab and DESY. This paper describes DTI's ongoing development of solid-state, transformerless...
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Propagation of short HV pulses along a 6-m long twin line was studied in presence of corona discharge. The experimental setup included a twin-line arrangement, a 100 kV, 5 ns pulse generator, voltage and current probes and photomultipliers. The dependencies on line geometry and wire conductivity and on pulse voltage and polarity have been studied. It was found that the discharge was very much asymmetric...
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Stacked Blumlein pulse generators comprised of parallel-plate transmission lines are potentially a useful pulsed-power architecture for high-gradient, compact, electron-beam induction accelerators. However, like induction accelerators driven by other pulsed-power architectures, it is generally a system requirement that the multi-stage accelerator structure be enclosed in a grounded metal enclosure...
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In an effort to develop transmission lines with higher energy storage capabilities for compact pulsed power applications, ceramic dielectrics and their electrical breakdown strength (BDS) are being developed and studied. Results of research to-date show that the dense titania ceramics with nanocrystalline grain size (-200 nm) exhibit significantly higher BDS as compared to ceramics made using coarse...
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The phenomenon of surface flashover on Metallized Polypropylene Films (MPF) is a highly complex process of which very little is known. In order to begin to better understand this phenomenon, a computer model was developed to simulate current waveforms obtained in experiments. Expressing the entire system in terms of the parasitic elements of the film to form an RLC circuit, a mathematical model was...
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Photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSS's), such as optically-triggered GaAs switches, have been developed for a variety of applications. Such switches exhibit unique properties as a consequence of lock-on, a phenomenon associated with the bistable switching of these devices. In this paper, lock-on is explained in terms of collective impact ionization. Furthermore, the effect of defects on the...
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AWE is developing high performance (1000R at 1 m, <2 mm spot size) flash X-ray sources to radiograph explosively driven heavy metal experiments. Intense electron beam diodes are being developed to deliver this capability from pulsed power drivers in a new hydrodynamics research facility known as the CPF [1]. The Large Scale Plasma (LSP) Particle In Cell (PIC) code [2] is being used extensively...
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This study investigates the operation of a rod-pinch diode at 20-50 Omega on the 6 MV Mercury generator for bright X-ray radiation generation. Electrical and time-resolved radiation measurements are used to study the effects of anode material, surface coating, electrode geometry, and diode nominal impedance on the pinch dynamics. The use of low-density plasma prefill is also investigated as a means...
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We achieved the generation of unipolar and bipolar ultra-wideband electrical pulses by using a photoconductive device. It relies on a doped silicon substrate which is used in the linear mode with less optical energy than usually published. This running mode allows the synchronisation of several sources with a timing jitter less than 5 ps. However it permits to control the low frequency components...
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Triggers for high voltage (HV) switches have always been critical components for reliable, efficient pulsed power systems because they control the timing synchronization and amplitude variation of multiple pulse forming lines that combine to produce the total system output pulse. In pulsed power systems of the future, the role of trigger systems are even more critical as they trigger more components...
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The Triggered Plasma Opening Switch (TPOS) at SNL is a unique device that exploits the high conductivity and low mass properties of plasma. The TPOS's objective is to take the initial ~0.8 MA (~250 ns rise time) storage inductor current and deliver ~0.5 MA at ~2.4 MV (~10 ns rise time) to a load of ~5-10 Omega. Configuration advantages include low current jitter and resistive voltage drop, power gain,...
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Investigation results of new type of inverse plasma current opening switch (POS), operating in the current range of 30divide400 kA at current rise time of ~1 mus. Velocity of the current decay reaches the value of 8-1012 A/s. The plasma current opening switch operates both at negative and positive polarity of a central electrode.
