Development of a repetitive 1-MV, 22-kJ Marx generator

A 220-kW Marx generator has been designed, built, and tested. It was developed to drive several different pulse power experimental devices requiring repetitive pulses at voltages to 1 MV and energies to 22 kJ per pulse. Experiments are planned that will explore dielectric performance under repetitive stress, cold cathode diode operation, and repetitive switching with saturable inductors at moderate peak power and voltage. A Marx generator was chosen because it has the versatility to drive such a variety of loads. The Marx generator system is made of 16 inductively isolated capacitor stages resistively charged to a maximum of 62.5 kV per capacitor and eight gas dynamic spark gaps. The charging source is a 2-MW dc bipolar power supply. The gas purging system is capable of supplying 3500 SCFH of air at the required pressure. The first two spark gaps of the Marx generator are triggered with a grounded grid thyratron pulser through a 1:10 step-up transformer with an output peaking gap as an (unused) option. At the maximum output (1 MV, 22 kJ) a repetition rate of 10 Hz is possible. This paper will review some of the development work done on rep rated Marx generators as well as explainmore » the present Marx generator configuration and associated hardware systems.« less