Development and testing of the ilc marx modulator

Construction of the SLAC/ILC ´Reference Design´ Marx Modulator is complete and testing is currently underway at SLAC. This modulator design is oil-free, air-cooled, and capable of delivering 120 kV, 140 A, 1400 musec pulses at a rate of 5 Hz. Total energy per pulse is 23,500 joules. Projected efficiency is greater than 96%. The Marx modulator design employs a stack of sixteen 12 kV Marx modules that generate high-voltage output pulses directly from a 12 kV input supply voltage. This direct switching eliminates the requirement for a massive transformer and reduces the capacitor bank size by more than a factor of four, yielding a considerably cheaper and more compact mechanical solution. Advantages of the ILC Marx design include higher efficiency, smaller physical size, and a modular architecture that provides greater reliability and cost- effective PC board-level integration.