Compact megawatt average power burst pulse generator

A compact, lightweight, burst mode pulse generator has been designed and evaluated at a megawatt of average power. The modulator occupies a volume of 0.81 m³and weighs 225 kg. The recently developed MAPS-40 thyratron [1] and two high-energy density pulse-forming networks [2] (PFN) are used as the switch and energy store. A solid-state end-of-line clipper circuit is included and was found to be essential at high average power loadings. The modulator has been evaluated using a copper sulphate load at 40-kV peak voltage, 40-kA peak current, 10-µs pulsewidth, 40-kA/µs rise time,and 50 A of average current at a repetition rate of 125 Hz. Repeated burst on times of 5 s in a 35-s time period have been demonstrated.