Synchronous Pulse Systems

In this paper, we describe a novel multiple-switch pulsed-power technology. The basic idea is that the heavy switching duty is shared by multiple switches. The multiple switches are interconnected via a transmission line transformer, in such a way that all switches can be synchronized automatically and no special external synchronization trigger circuit is required. It can produce either exponential or square pulses, with various voltage and current gains and with a high degree of freedom in choosing output impedances. The topology has been implemented on a prototype with ten spark-gap switches. Pulses with a rise time of 10 ns, a width of 55 ns, a peak power up to 810 MW, a peak voltage of 77 kV, and a peak current of 11 kA have been achieved at a repetition rate of 300 pps. The energy efficiency of the circuit is about 93%. In addition to spark gaps, any overvoltage-controlled switch can be applied in this topology. As an example, we demonstrate the synchronous switching of multiple thyristor switches for current multiplication. The proposed multiple-switch topology can also be applied in a Blumlein configuration for an inductive voltage adder and a linear transformer driver.