An impulse voltage calibrator of low output impedance

A calibrator that produces full lightning impulses and chopped lightning impulses with variable chopping time is described. The calibrator uses series-connected power metal-oxide field-effect transistors as the main impulse switch and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) as the chopping switch, and its output impedance is low to drive a termination impedance of 50 /spl Omega/. The performance of the calibrator is verified by comparing the simulated calibrator output parameters based on the calibrator component values and output parameters calculated from measured output waveforms using a calibrated digitizer.