Feasibility and Performance of a Tapered Helical Pulse-Forming Line-Based Pulse Transformer

Conventional pulsed power devices such as Marx generators, Tesla transformers, and cable-based generators are usually bulky and occupy a large volume when used for generating high-voltage pulses of duration longer than 100 ns. Cable-based generators also have the limitation of generating half the charging voltage when delivering the entire energy into a matched load. Inductive energy storage systems provide an alternate and effective scheme to overcome these issues. However, their efficiency depends upon the performance of opening switches. Also, inductive energy storage systems do not typically generate flat-top voltage pulses that are desirable for driving various pulsed power loads. In this paper, a new device, named the tapered helical pulse-forming line-based pulse transformer (THPFL-PT), is designed to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks. The device performs two actions at the same time, i.e., it steps up the input charging voltage, and it generates a flat-top nanosecond voltage pulse. It is developed and characterized at low voltages to verify the feasibility of the concept developed and design parameters. The entire device is compact, with length of about 330 mm. It is capable of generating a voltage pulse of magnitude higher than the charging voltage with a duration of about 100 ns and almost a flat-top profile.