An EBS (electron bombarded semiconductor) high-current pulse amplifier

An EBS (electron bombarded semiconductor) pulse amplifier which generates high-current fast-risetime variable-width pulses into low impedance loads is described. Current pulses of 100 A into a 1-Ω load have been obtained with a risetime of 2.2 ns. A di/dt of 40 000 A/µs and a dV/dt of 71 000 V/µs have been obtained. Pulse lengths to 1 µs at 0.1-percent duty have been achieved. The risetime and peak current capabilities are presently limited by internal circuit parasitics. Without parasistics, the theoretical peak output capabilities for this EBS are 340 A with a di/dt of 6 × 10⁵A/µs.