A new, compact pulsed power system based on surge arrestor technology

We describe a pulsed power technique in which the conventional pulse forming network (PFN) is replaced with commercial metal oxide varistor (MOV) surge arrestors to provide wave shaping and pulse width control. This results in a very compact, simple system capable of driving a wide range of loads (~10-10K ohms) with pulse widths from a few hundred nanoseconds to many microseconds. Because the MOVs are readily stacked in series and in parallel, a wide range of voltages and currents are possible. The high power capability and fast response of MOV allows repetitive pulse operation. In this paper, we describe the concept theory of operation We discuss design techniques and compare circuit simulation to test data from a demonstration system. Finally, we show the first two commercial generators based on this concept.