Semiconductor opening switch based repetitive pulsed power generator

The repetitive pulsed power generators were constructed with the semiconductor opening switches (SOS) realizing the pulse compression by inductive energy storage scheme. For the preliminary pulse compression, the magnetic pulse compression system was employed. The saturable inductors and transformers transferred the stored electrical energy from the primary storage capacitor to the SOS compressing the pulse. For the final stage of the generator, the SOS was used. By tuning the current fed to the SOS, the amplitude and pulse duration of the generated voltage at the 300-Ω resistive load were 150 kV and 60 ns, respectively. Also, general-purpose fast-recovery diodes (FRD) were tested from the viewpoint of the potential candidate as the SOS. The properties of two diodes, of which the reverse recovery time is 100 ns, were tested and found to be enough good as an opening switch. Combining WC and SOS pulse compression scheme, pulsed voltage of 50 kV in amplitude and 20 ns in FWHM is obtained from the relatively low charging voltage of 1.4 kV, which can be repetitively ignited by a semiconductor closing switch.