45 GW Pulsed-Power Generator

The construction, and initial tests, of a 45 GW pulsed-power generator with an impedance of 2 Omega are presented. The generator can deliver a rectangular pulse of 300 kV with duration of 200 ns across a matched load. The generator is designed to be able to deliver a voltage of 500 kV into a 10 Omega unmatched load. Since the power decline follows an inverse square root curve as the load is increased, the generator will deliver an output power of 25 GW into a 10 Omega load. The equivalent electric circuit of the generator is shown in the figure below. The generator consists of a 50 kV, 20 kJ capacitor bank as primary energy storage. The 50 kV is discharged into a 1:12 transformer that charges a pulse-forming line to 600 kV. When charged, the pulse-forming line is discharged into the load via a spark gap. The transformer is of the type transmission-line-like where the high-voltage and low-voltage windings consists of high-voltage cables that are interleaved wounded. The pulse-forming line consists of 8x40 m long 110-kV coaxial cables. Each cable is grounded at 20 m and connected in parallel as illustrated in the figure below. The cables have a characteristic impedance of 30 Omega and the parallel set-up makes the pulse-forming line impedance 2 Omega. The total length, height and width of the pulse generator are 4 m, 2 m and 1.2 m respectively.