Pulsed power inductive energy storage in the microsecond range

During the past five years Maxwell has developed a series of inductive energy storage (IES) pulsed power generators; ACE 1, ACE 2, ACE 3, and ACE 4, to drive electron-beam loads. They are all based on a plasma opening switch (POS) contained in a single vacuum envelope operating at conduction times of around one microsecond. They all employ fast capacitor bank technology to match this conduction time without intermediate power conditioning. Oil or air filled transmission lines transfer capacitor bank energy to a vacuum section where the final pulse compression is accomplished. Development of the ACE series is described, emphasizing capacitor bank and the opening switch technology for delivering high voltage, multimegampere pulses to electron beam loads.