High current transistor pulse generator

A solid-state pulse generator capable of delivering high-current trapezoidally shaped pulses into an inductive load has been developed at SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center). Energy stored in the capacitor bank of the pulse generator is switched to the load through a pair of Darlington transistors. A combination of diodes and Darlington transistors is used to obtain trapezoidally or triangularly shaped current pulses into an inductive load and to recover the remaining energy in the same capacitor bank without reversing capacitor voltage. The transistors work in the switch mode, and the power losses are low. The rack-mounted pulse generators presently used at SLAC contain a 660- mu F storage capacitor bank and can deliver 400 A at 800 V into inductive loads up to 3 mH. The pulse generators are used in several different power systems, including pulse-to-pulse bipolar power supplies and in applications with current pulse distributed into different inductive loads. The current amplitude and discharge time are controlled by the central computer system through a specially developed multichannel controller. The pulse generators have performed reliably.<>