Status on the SPHINX machine based on the 1 microsecond LTD technology

The SPHINX machine developed at Centre d’Etudes de Gramat is based on the 1 microsecond LTD technology. Before 2006, it operated with 16 branches of 8 LTD stages each and was used for implosion of Z-pinch loads in direct drive mode. At a charging voltage of 50kV, the stored energy was 1.3MJ and the good reliability of the machine allowed many experiments on 4MA, 700ns implosion of nested wire-arrays [1]. Parallel to these experiments, improvements on LTD stages have been achieved on test-beds up to 70kV charging voltage, leading to a new design of LTD stage, named LTD-05. Sphinx machine has been upgraded with 144 such LTD-05 stages. Details are given on stage design, on electrical and electrostatic simulations and on experimental results. Several sub-systems modifications or developments are also described : pre-magnetizing and triggering systems, prepulse current generator for wire-array pre-heating and a status on improved performances and reliability of the complete Sphinx system is given.