Development of solid-state based triggering arrangement of KALI-5000 MARX generator

This paper is intended to report design methodology and implementation experiments of solid state based triggering arrangement for MARX generator of KALI-5000 (1MV, 40kA, 100nS) pulsed power system. The 15 stage bipolar MARX generator of KALI-5000 system is triggered using three triggered sparkgaps. An IGBT based trigger supply is used to trigger the first spark gap and consecutive two sparkgaps are triggered by using internally generated trigger pulses. Optically isolated arrangements are provided for human interface. Whole assembly is tested with dummy copper sulphate load and an excellent triggering range of 7-12kV is achieved. Circuit diagram, analysis and experimental results are presented in the paper.