Design Equations for Dynamitron Type Power Supplies in the Megavolt Range

The power supply which is used as the accelerating potential for megavolt Dynamitron accelerators is a parallel-fed, series-cascaded rectifier system. Low frequency RF voltage is capacitively coupled into the cascaded rectifier system by means of an SF-6 gas insulated electrode configuration. Maximum voltage attained with this configuration has been 5.7 MV. Maximum current attained has been 20 mA. Maximum beam power attained has been 40 kW. This paper covers the development of equations which express the operational input parameters such as, oscillator plate voltage, current, and power in terms of the required output high voltage and load current, and the internal circuit parameters such as, tank capacitance, tank inductance resistance, number of rectifier stages, and oscillating frequency. Calculated data from these equations agree closely with experimental data. This analysis allows the optimization of a power supply design in terms of critical parameters for a given maximum output voltage and load current.