An impulse voltage calibrator of low output impedance

A calibrator that produces full lightning impulses and chopped lightning impulses with variable chopping time is described. The calibrator uses series-connected power metal-oxide field-effect transistors as the main impulse switch and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) as the chopping switch, and its output impedance is low to drive a termination impedance of 50 (omega). The performance of the calibrator is verified by comparing the simulated calibrator output parameters based on the calibrator component values and output parameters calculated from measured output waveforms using a calibrated digitizer.