Dual polarity pulse forming network testbed

Summary form only given as follows. A dual polarity pulse forming network (PFN) was developed to evaluate an array of high voltage, 100 kW power supplies. These power supplies are being built for a mobile HPM system development program. The PFN is designed to simulate a dual polarity modulator with the following parameter: 2 /spl mu/s, /spl plusmn/ 30 kV, 6000 amps, and 300 Hz rep-rate. The system was developed for two primary tasks. First, it will be used to condition a set of high voltage high current, gas filled switch tubes. The switch tubes are capable of 80 kV and 6 kA. As part of their setup, they must be conditioned at maximum operating voltage and current. Several tubes will be conditioned as backup devices. Another task is to evaluate a high voltage, 100 kW transformer type power supply. The power supply has been evaluated into a static resistive load at 115% of rated capacity. The final evaluation of the system will be done in a dynamic mode to verify system integrity. In a pulsing mode the system has to deal with high voltage transients. The transients can sometime adversely interact with system components, like control circuitry. It is a goal of the dynamic evaluation to identify any problems associated with these transients and rectify them to insure safe and reliable operation. The third application of the system is to use the unit to evaluate a battery powered high voltage power supply design. The unit is being designed to replace the transformer system in an effort to reduce system weight and complexity. The primary goal of this paper is to describe the design, setup, and evaluation of this test bed. It attempts to detail the design features that mere relevant to our application. It also describes the evaluation process.