Development of a 500kJ Pulsed Forming Network for EML System

Summary form only given. The paper describes a capacitor-based pulsed forming network (PFN) with a compact design as the primary means of energy storage and pulse shaping for electromagnetic launcher system. The network consists of ten 50kJ modules and can supply various shapes of high current pulse by change of charging voltage and firing time of each module. The maximum current for each module is 70kA at the charging voltage of 13kV. The critical components in the PFN are discussed, including high energy density capacitors, inductors, discharge switches, crowbar diodes and dump resistors. The basic technical requirements to be fulfilled by these components are presented. The discharge switch is very important to the PFN. Characteristics of triggering, life and reliability of gas switches and triggered vacuum switch (TVS) are compared through a lot of tests in PFN. The experiments of the paralleled modules with 592muF capacitor, 20muH inductance, 30mOmega dump resistor and similarly short load were performed. The total output current was 409kA.