A Nanosecond, High Repetition-Rate All Water Pulse Generator

The high breakdown strength and high permittivity of water offer the possibility to use it for energy storage and switching in compact pulse power systems. Repetition rates above 1 kHz were recently demonstrated for an all-water pulse generator. Applications for a kilohertz, nanosecond, high power system are in fuel ignition and bioelectrics. We built a 10 Omega water pulse generator, which provides a 10 ns pulse with a risetime of 2.2 ns and an amplitude of up to 35 kV into a matched load. The water in the transmission line is circulated by a pump and deionized by a filter. A separate hydraulic system circulates water through the switch at a higher flow rate than through the transmission line. This allows removal of debris and vapor bubbles remaining after each switching cycle, and to reduce thermal effects in the switch at high repetition rate