A new type high voltage fast rise/fall time solid state marx pulse modulator

A new type of solid state Marx modulator developed by Stangenes Industries has the capability of producing high voltage pulses with fast rise and fall time at high repetition rates. In addition, it has the ability to produce dynamically flexible output amplitude and pulse width. The pulse modulator was developed for the Fermi Labs Tevatron electron lens tune compensation system. It can produce a 14 kV pulse with 200-nanosecond rise time and 600-nanosecond full pulse width at a 25-kilohertz repetition rate. It has no overshot or reverse voltage, making it ideal for beam bunch manipulation. It was designed to operate into a 200 pfd, 800-ohm load. This design permits all of the sources of power including the 1 kV charging power supply to be connected at the grounded end of the pulser. A second-generation pulser is under development to operate at above 50 kHz repetition rate with an arbitrary voltage waveform and faster rise/fall time. The pulser can accommodate load arcing and incorporates built in redundancy to insure high availability. The paper delineates the unique design of the modulator and its performance.