Conveners
Poster - Compact and Explosive Pulsed Power and Pulsed Power Systems
- Brett Huhman (US Naval Resarch Laboratory)
- Carlos Martins (European Spallation Source)
The impact of mechanical stresses on polymer bonded high explosives, HE, is investigated. High-Speed photography in the visible spectrum, VIS, as well mid-wave infrared (MWIR) of HE during small diameter drilling and controlled skidding is presented. Controlled drilling into the HE enables recording the size and temperature of shavings under varying feed and speeds. Even at very high drill...
The response of PBX HE under varying impact forces and impact surface area grits is analyzed to form a probability of detonation function. Using an air ram and rotating disk, the forces exerted in the normal and transverse directions of the impact plane are controlled to emulate skidding of PBX. The employment of a hopper system feeds grit onto the impact area with the ability to vary the grit...
High energy density physics experiments often require the use of short pulses of hard X-ray probing radiation to make measurements of the conditions produced - for instance using X-ray diffraction to examine phase changes in a material subject to multi-Mbar pressures. Whilst there are several methods of producing such bursts of radiation, the use of a pulsed power driven X-pinch is highly...
Exploding Foil Initiators (EFI) are one method used to detonate secondary high-explosives without the use of sensitive, primary high-explosives. EFI’s are typically driven by low-inductance, capacitor discharge units (a.k.a firesets or electric guns). Electric guns with stored energy of around 500-J and peak currents of 10’s of kA are in common use to drive plastic-film flyers with areas of...
Abstract: The burst current will appear a brief pause phenomenon during the electrical explosion process, which is known as restrike, restricting the sedimentary energy of metal conductors in the exploding progess, changing the energy transfer process, thus affecting the propagation of detonation products. In order to study the factors affecting the restrike characteristics of electric...
A 2 kA, 5 MeV linear induction accelerator has been built and successfully set in operation in Budker Institute. The accelerator consists of 2 MeV injector and 8 induction cells rated at energy gain up to 380 keV each. The accelerator pulsed power supply is based on an induction adder technique and aimed to supply 96 inductors of the injector and 128 inductors of all induction cells. The 112...
High current drivers are key tools for material-physics experiments. For this study, the range of interest is to reach 0.1 to 3 GPa magnetic pressure in a sample area of several tens of square centimeters. An accurate control of the pressure wave is needed: 1D propagation, pressure homogeneity on sample area, reproducibility of pressure between experiments, modularity of pressure amplitude...
Explosive-driven magnetic-flux-compression generators are devices that convert part of the energy contained in high explosives into electromagnetic energy. These generators are one of the most efficient techniques for generating high magnetic fields and current impulses. In most generator designs, a small seed current from a capacitor bank is used to create an initial magnetic field between a...
Many current high-energy-density physics (HEDP) and material science experiments require a large investment of time and research funds, and often come with a low duty factor. We have developed the Cinco HEDP driver, which is a compact pulsed power generator that can be fired more than four times a day (load limited) and has a footprint of only 2$m^2$. Cinco will be capable of providing...
Efficient pulse charging of small high-voltage load capacitors with Marx-generators is limited by the parasitic capacitance within the Marx network. Yet the stray capacitance to ground is essential for proper Marx erection. For successful triggering, this capacitance can not be much smaller than the inter-stage capacitance. In earlier work, Marx-network designs were shown that transfer energy...
High power microwaves can be used in the field of medical, military and civil applications like cancer treatment, destruction of some explosive devices, food preservation etc. This paper presents the design and experiment results of a high power ultra-wide band source. The system mainly consists of a low inductance Marx Generator, Pulse Forming Stage (PFS), a balun and a linear TEM Horn...
In order to study the influence of the rise/fall time of high-voltage nanosecond pulses on cell killing effect, a high-voltage nanosecond pulse generator with adjustable rise/fall time is needed. A novel generator topology based on half-bridge modular multilevel converter (HB-MMC) is proposed. Several HB-MMC submodules are connected in series as two arms to generate unipolar/bipolar high...
High voltage nanosecond pulse generator has numerous applications on industry, such as triggering the Pockels cell, triggering the spark switch, and generating the discharge plasma. All of these applications require the generators have high amplitude, great stability, fast rise time and low jitter. In this case, solid-state switches have great advantages comparing with gas spark switches....
There is resurgent of interest in the development of high voltage, short pulse, fast rise time and high frequency modulators for the generation of uniform and diffuse plasma in the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) based non-thermal plasma (NTP) sources useful for potential biological, medical, surface modification, food, agriculture, sterilization, etc. [1-2]. The DBD based non-thermal...
Compact capacitors for use in high voltage, pulsed power and directed energy applications that have a much higher voltage hold off than current commercial ceramic capacitors and are much more thermally stable have been developed. These 130 pF capacitors use a proprietary nanocomposite dielectric material named MU100 and were designed for 500 kV operation with 55% reversal. This material was...
A 4 kV/4 kA compact Pulse Forming Network (PFN) system is designed that incorporates a ten stage Rayleigh PFN in five configurable blocks to control the pulse length in increments of 25 μs up to a maximum of 125 μs for a peak energy delivery of 1.5 kJ. Prior to CNC machining and implementation into a mobile package ,with dimensions of 96.5X81X79 cm, the system was fully CAD modeled and as...
The CLIC study is investigating the technical feasibility of an electron-positron collider with high luminosity and a nominal centre-of-mass energy of 3 TeV. The pre-damping rings and damping rings (DRs) will produce ultra-low emittance beam with high bunch charge. To avoid beam emittance increase, the DR kicker systems must provide extremely stable field pulses during injection and extraction...
Nonequilibrium plasma techniques offer an innovative approach to the cost effective solution of various preeminent environmental problems lacing the world today such as acid rain, global warming, ozone depletion, and smog etc. In the developing world, polluting and less efficient conventional equipment need to be upgraded with eco-friendly and energy efficient technologies. Plasma based...
Triboluminescence is a luminous phenomenon resulted from friction; for example, peeling scotch tape, breaking rock sugar with a hammer, peeling mica and so on. Triboluminescence is well known over 50 years but in 2008 UCLA group reported the radiation of x-ray region by triboluminescence in vacuum for the first time(1). UCLA group made an automatic machine which peels scotch tape. With a view...
This paper outlines the design and tradeoffs of a compact custom capacitive charging and discharging circuit. The system has a maximum charging voltage of 10 kV at 2 mA and utilizes an external capacitor both of which can be chosen by the user. To maintain the user’s set voltage a micro-controller (MCU) in conjunction with feedback from voltage monitoring is used to make real-time voltage...
RF signal continuity from a nonlinear transmission line (NLTL) requires continuous supply of input signal, which may not be feasible in all practical applications. We have constructed a closed-loop setup that can sustainably generate RF signals from the NLTL using a single input pulse for a significant amount of time. An LDMOS based 1.5 kW (continuous) rated power amplifier, RF transformers...
Currently, active development of the element base for high-current generators is underway. The previously proposed and implemented new type Capacitor-Switch Assembly - HCEIcsa 160-0.1 required the development of new triggered gas switch. The design of the electrodes determines the largest possible operating voltage, the required pressure and jitter of the CSA, which ultimately affects the...
The paper presents the structure of the LTD generator on the basis of HCEIcsa 160-0.1 with an output current level of about 1 megamper and a rise time of 100 ns. We have considered various design options and carried out a numerical simulation of the LTD cavity operation. The dependences of the output pulse parameters for different arrangement are obtained. The possibilities for creating a LTD...
The CEA 1MV Linear Transformer Driver (LTD) has been operated since 2010 for flash X-ray radiography studies. This generator is composed of 10 cavities; each cavity includes 16 bricks representing two capacitors (GA 35436, 100kV, 8nF) and one multi-gaps air pressurized switch. The switches consist of a stack of annular electrodes inside an insulating body of polyamide. The postential...
Linear Transformer Drivers (LTDs) are a valuable class of pulsed power generators capable of efficient energy coupling to experimental loads and high repetition rate in a compact footprint when compared to conventional Marx bank-based systems. Presented here are results of operation of an 800 kA, 150 ns LTD at UC San Diego. These engineering tests results include current and voltage waveforms...
Peter Stone (aka Peter V. Vassioukevitch)
Free-Lance Researcher, USA
Abstract
This Article is a continuation of the research of Pulse Power Systems [1], [2]. Current features as well as complications of Electromagnetic Launchers (EL) of projectile are well known. The low efficiency of EL prompted the research for a fundamentally new type of devices, as well as a new type of...
An induction coilgun launcher is being designed and developed in the author’s laboratory to propel a solid aluminium projectile of 20 g. Pulsed alternators have several advantages over capacitor banks such as higher energy density, occurrence of natural current zero in the wave form and non-requirement of any external pulsed conditioning/ crowbarring circuit.
A single phase, iron core,...
Electromagnetic launchers are electrical machines which converts electrical energy to mechanical energy using pulse power supplies (PPS). Magnitude of currents are usually in the order of hundreds of kilo-amperes and their efficiencies are below 30%. High current generates heat which is one of the limiting factor of the whole system. Utilization of external coils placed on top and bottom of...
This paper has designed and established a vehicular 200-KJ pulsed power system (PPS) for Electrothermal-Chemical Launch (ETC). The PPS consists of pulsed power module, high power charger, remote control system and high power connector. Two independent 100KJ pulse forming units (PFUS) are integrated in a pulse power module. Each PFU can be controlled independently by remote computer to meet the...
The generation of radiofrequency through Nonlinear Transmission Lines (NLTLs) have been investigated as an alternative way to build RF generators for application in telecommunication, medical and defensive electronic countermeasures systems. Two main configurations of NLTLs were reported in the literature: discrete lines that comprise a network of LC sections built with nonlinear components...
A new pulse power system has been developed to investigate the use of "exploding" solenoids for
establishing large magnetic fields for laser-driven inertial confinement fusion experiments. A 40 kV, 4 $\mu$F capacitor, switched by spark-gap drives up to 30 kA in small solenoids inside a vacuum chamber, establishing peak axial magnetic field strengths of 30 T in approximately a 1 $cm^3$ volume....
The lumped nonlinear transmission lines have been studied for the radiofrequency signals generation in the range of the order of tens of MHz up to a few hundreds of MHz depending on the nonlinear element used to build the LC line. The oscillations obtained at the output of these lines are applied in defense mobile platforms and communications systems. Low power nonlinear transmission lines use...
Recent advances show the increasing demand of fast rise time pulse generators with variable high voltage and pulse durations with high repetition rate because of its wide range of applications. Considering the above, a low cost, simple, rugged and compact high voltage, nanosecond pulse generator is developed using coaxial transmission line with output voltage level up to 10 kV. Variable pulse...
Eagle Harbor Technologies, Inc. (EHT) has developed an inductive adder for driving nonlinear transmission lines (NLTLs). This inductive adder is composed of three modules, each with eight printed circuit boards. This modular approach allows systems to be easily configured for 12, 24, or 36 kV outputs. This 36 kV inductive adder can drive 50-ohm loads with fast rise times (sub-10 ns) and...
Eagle Harbor Technologies, Inc. (EHT) has developed a high voltage nanosecond pulse generator that operates at high average power levels for industrial applications including water treatment, semiconductor processing, materials processing, and sterilization. EHT’s previous generation of high voltage nanosecond pulsers operated at 5 kW of average power and pulse repetition frequencies up to 100...
Pulsed power generator based on LTD (linear transformer driver) has various advantages over those based on traditional pulse compression schemes. Efficiency and rise time are important issues for the performance of pulsed power generators, especially for industrial applications. A solid-state LTD module using silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs as switches has been designed and tested. ...
A Means of Producing Precisely Delayed High Peak Power Optical Pulses with Low Jitter
Max Fazekas and Scott D. Kovaleski
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211 USA
Abstract. An electronically controlled optical system is being preliminarily designed to generate carriers in two or more photo-conductive semiconductor switches (PCSS)...
The Chopper-type Marx modulator is being developed to drive a 10MW L-band multi-beam klystron for the International Linear Collider (ILC) at High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK). It consists of 20 units in series to provide the klystron with a -120kV 140A 1.65ms pulse at a repetition rate of 5pps. The each unit has a control board and 4 chopper circuits in series. Each chopper...
Increasing the repetition rate of high energy lasers is of great interest for several applications. “Flashdence” is part of a larger program driven by CEA and devoted to the light amplification with Nd-glass pumped by flashlamps in order to progress on high energy laser technology in the range of 1kJ, 10PW at 1 shot per minute.
Increasing the repetition rate of such lasers generates a high...
Diversified Technologies, Inc. (DTI) has delivered a new long-pulse modulator klystron test stand to Communication and Power Industries (CPI) in Palo Alto, CA for full power testing of production VKP-8292A klystrons for the European Spallation Source (ESS). The output is flat to less than 0.5% over 3.3 ms. This test stand was built using hardware and designs from an earlier SBIR effort for the...
There are develop pulse generator that are active in industry as drivers of excimer laser for semiconductor lithography light sources and pulsed power generation devices using magnetic pulse compression (MPC) circuits. Application studies such as shock wave generation using the same kind of pulsed power generator, biological application, chemically active species generation and the like are...
It will be presented in this work development, production and experimental results of HPM modulator based on Marx topology. In general, drivers for HPS devices based on PFL or capacitor source coupled to the HPM devices by means of high voltage transformer. In our case, due to strong requirement on ultra-fast rise time, common concept was unacceptable, and direct coupling of the source was...
Recently, pulsed power technology has been used in various field such as high density energy, industrial, medical, food, and agricultural applications. Non-thermal plasma generation is the key research for those applications. There are many papers report that the shorter duration and faster rise time, fall time of input voltage enables the higher energy efficiency in plasma processing....
In an inductive pulsed power supply (IPPS) system, the energy density optimization of IPPS module is important for building a higher energy IPPS system. However, in the existing papers, the optimization of modules is rarely mentioned. This article uses meat grinder with SECT circuit as the background for module optimization. For the meat grinder with SECT circuit, the charging current and the...
The meat grinder with SECT circuit is a basic circuit for inductive pulsed power supply. When it comes to a practical electromagnetic launch system, collaborative work of multiple modules is necessary. This paper discusses the performance feature of two meat grinder with SECT modules in Fig. 1 which are charged in parallel by $C_0$ and then discharge in parallel to load with different time...
Inductive pulse power supplies play an important role in electromagnetic launch. Among various power supply topologies, the meat grinder with SECT circuit (as shown in Fig. 1) attracted researchers’ attention with its advantages of high energy density, good output waveform and low main switch voltage. C1 is the current turning-off source and the leakage inductive energy absorber...
This paper describes a 25kW bipolar pulsed transmitter based on modular structure for mineral exploration. The specifications of unit module including a LCC resonant converter and full bridge-based bipolar pulse switching unit are 500V, 12.5 A of output voltage and current, and DC to 8 kHz of pulse frequency. The LCC resonant converter having a trapezoidal-shaped resonant current is designed...
The case which is being described regards the means of supplying a miniature plasma reactor. The matter concerns mainly the sliding arc discharge which is developed in the conditions of air or other gases that are difficult to ionize. From the ecological point of view, the discharge in the air as a plasma-creating gas is especially important, since it is currently widely used in the field of...
A new off-axis current driving method for high electron beta plasma using Helicon wave have been experimentally demonstrated in the KSTAR tokamak. Low power level coupling experimental analysis was performed in the KSTAR tokamak under various plasma conditions using traveling wave antenna, and moderate coupling and load-resilient characteristics were confirmed. Currently, KSTAR aims to upgrade...
The GlidArc plasma reactor together with an electrical energy supply and a gas delivery circuit are inseparable elements of the plasma generation system. The plasma generated by such a system must have properties and parameters determined by the conducted plasma-chemical process. The parameters of all the elements of the system are dependent on each other, and a change of one of them forces...
A plasma reactor with a gliding arc discharge is a source of electromagnetic interference both radiated and conducted. They affect the operation of the reactor power systems and devices controlling their operation. Disruptions in the reactor's operation can cause uncontrolled extinguishing and ignition of an electric discharge, which in the case of accumulation of flammable compounds in the...
This paper describes a pulsed power modulator with a new structure for an efficient active pull-down function. In some applications where a capacitive load such as plasma reactor is used, the output pulse has slow falling time since the residual energy of the load slowly decreases. Therefore, an effective pull-down performance is required to generate the output pulse in square wave form. The...
Microgrids have been studied considerably over the last decade and are now able to be uniquely designed and controlled to handle a wide variety of loads, many of which may operate in a transient manner. Historically, electric grids have relied upon fossil fuel powered motors to spin generators that source most of the electric power they need. Microgrids deploy a host of different distributed...
The Lockheed Martin Compact Fusion Reactor (CFR) Program endeavors to quickly develop a compact, 100 MWe-class fusion power plant using a high-beta, linear encapsulated ring-cusp magnetic confinement scheme. Plasma sources, heating elements, and confinement coils incorporated into CFR prototypes require significant power and have motivated the development of several MW-class, medium- and...
Applied Physical Electronics, L.C. (APELC) has built and characterized a large Marx generator designed for a maximum erected voltage of 4 MV, with a maximum pulse energy of 14.5 kJ. The generator is based on a dual polarity charging topology, which helps reduce the source impedance to approximately 70 Ohms. When driving a matched resistive load, a peak power of 230 GW is delivered, with an...
Eagle Harbor Technologies, Inc. is developing a new, solid-state klystron driver for use in fusion science applications. The next-generation klystron driver will take advantage of the high frequency solid-state switching capabilities developed by EHT with support from the DOE SBIR program. The resonant circuit allows for zero current switching, which reduces the stress on the solid-state...
