15 KJ Flash Lamp, Power Conditioning Unit Designed for Safty, Reliability & Manufacturability

A 15 kJoule, Flash Lamp Power Condition Unit has been successfully designed, developed, and implemented for the NIF Pre Amplifier Modules (PAM). The primary design philosophy of this power conditioning unit (PCU) is safety, reliability, and manufacturability. Cost reduction over commercially equivalent systems was achieved through an easily manufactured packaging design optimized to meet NIF requirements. While still maintaining low cost the PCU design includes a robust control system, fault diagnostic system, and safety features. The pulse power design includes 6 PFN modules, each including a dual series injection trigger transformer, that source a total of 12 each flash lamp loads. The lamps are individually triggered via a 20 kV pulse produced by a 1 kV, MCT switched capacitive discharge circuit on the primary side of the trigger transformer. The remote control interface includes an embedded controller that captures flash lamp current wave forms and fault status for each shot. The embedded controller also provides the flexibility of remotely adjusting the trigger voltage from 0 to 20 kV.