Status on the sphinx generator based on microsecond current risetime LTD

Sphinx is the new name of the facility developed for soft X-ray production at Centre d´Etudes de Gramat (CEG), France. This facility is based on the ECF2 generator which was designed as a 1-3 MJ, 1 mus rise time, 5-10 MA current driver. In this paper, we present a detailed view of the technology used for the capacitor bank. Some details are also given for the central vacuum part and for the Z-pinch load. The capacitor bank is based on the 1 mus LTD technology; it now stores 1 MJ with 12 parallel branches and 8 LTD stages per branch (each stage charged under 50 kV). We plan to have within the next 2 years, 3 MJ stored energy with 16 branches, 10 LTD stages per branch (charged under 70 kV). Improvements made on the LTD stages are presented. The modularity of this driver and the design of central vacuum part allow to test different schemes: flux compression up to 2003 [1] and direct drive Z-pinches now. We give details on the mechanical arrangements and some examples of experimental results