High power megavolt pulsed generator with nanosecond rise time

Abstract

A pulsed generator with a power of 0.1 TW, an amplitude of up to 2 MV and /spl sim/1.5 nsec rise time is described. A Marx generator charges a low inductive capacitor (1.8 nF) and a radial line (0.9 nF) to a voltage of /spl sim/2 MV in 200 nsec. At the peak voltage, a water switch breaks down at the center of the radial line resulting in a /spl sim/2.5 MV voltage pulse at the end of the line. This pulse propagates along the oil-insulated line. The line is connected to an oil-filled peaking switch with a metal diaphragm, which reduces the transfer capacitance of the discharge gap to 5 pF in order to match the radial line with a load being connected to the switch output. A crowbar switch may be used for operation in the short-pulse mode. A pulse with a width of up to 20 nsec has been generated on a matched load equivalent.