STARFISH 1 - Towards a compact 1MA pulsed power generator for z-pinch applications

The design and construction of STARFISH, a series of compact compact pulsed power generators to drive advanced z-pinch experiments, for applications such soft X-ray generation and as a high density plasma diagnostic, is being developed in Oxford. The design for these machines is based on the use of many very low impedance distributed pulse forming lines (PFLs) or discrete pulse forming networks (PFNs), connected in parallel, DC charged and switched simultaneously on to a load which may be a wire or laser pre-ionised channel. This generator avoids the use of very high voltage Marx generators, liquid insulated pulse forming lines and MITLs that are usually used in machines driving large z-pinch experiments. Consequently the generator is far more compact than conventional designs and should be operable at much higher repetition rates if laser pre-ionisation is used. The idea is to build a series of generators that can be operated routinely on a day-to-day basis, with pulse characteristics that can be “tailor-made” for specific loads, and be both efficient and reliable.