Conveners
7.4 Linear Tranformer Driver
- Fred Bayol (ITHPP)
Xi’an Jiaotong University in collaboration with the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, is developing fast linear transformer driver (FLTD) technology for high energy density physics applications. Recently, the advances in gas switches, bricks, cavities and triggering system have been made.
First, a new type of three-electrode field distortion gas switch was developed, and FLTD bricks...
In this presentation we describe the design, simulation and performance of a 118-GW linear transformer driver (LTD) cavity at Sandia National Laboratories. The cavity consists of 20 to 24 ``bricks''. Each brick is comprised of two 80 nF, 100 kV capacitors connected electrically in series with a custom, 200 kV, three-electrode, field-distortion gas switch. The brick capacitors are bi-polar...
X pinches are well-known sources for point-projection radiography: given the right conditions, they generate very bright, x-ray bursts launched from a very small, dense plasma source. To advance the performance of these x pinches, a new, compact pulser was built at the University of Rochester. The pulser is a spin-off of Linear Transformer Driver technologies: it consists of 5 LTD bricks...
Linear transformer drivers have now become the technology of choice for the next generation of pulsed-power devices. The main advantage of LTDs over Marx generators, is the lack of pulsed compression hardware. Dropping this requirement has enabled the design of more efficient, highly modular systems. But capacitor technology is still a limiting factor, with two hard limits: peak current and...
In LTD technology, the critical element that has the greatest impact on the output parameters of the generator is the primary storage unit - the capacitor-switch assembly (or “brick”). The electrical parameters of the capacitor-switch assembly (CSA), its dimensions and number determine the parameters of the LTD stage and, as a result, of the total LTD generator. This paper presents a new type...
An all-solid-state pulse generator based on multi-turn LTD is designed for the application of pulse power techniques with high-voltage, large-current and wide pulse width. The magnetic core of the LTD pulse generator adopts the method of multi-turn winding, which can output pulse of wide pulse width. The isolation of drive power supply and energy charging with co-direction winding of LTD...
The BLUE linear transformer driver (LTD) system is being constructed in the University of Michigan’s Plasma, Pulsed Power, and Microwave Lab. The system will be comprised of four LTD cavities, which were previously part of the 21-cavity Ursa Minor facility at Sandia National Laboratories. The system will be capable of delivering up to 8kJ to a proper load in a 200kA, 100ns pulse. Dual 100kV,...
