Wear-less trigger method for Marx generators in repetitive operation

Triggered Marx-generators running in repetitive operation play an important role for many future industrial applications replacing the traditional methods for the treatment of large mass streams. A reliable operation over a fairly long time is one prerequisite, the design of such a generator has to guarantee. For conventionally triggered spark-gaps we experienced a comparatively short component lifetime. Therefore, a new trigger method based on the superposition of an additional voltage pulse to the charging voltage in a two-electrode spark-gap configuration has been developed. The paper describes the implementation into an existing Marx- design and some preliminary experimental results.