A Compact High Speed Low Impedance Blumlein Line for High Voltage Pulse Shaping

Design, construction, and operation of a low impedance Blumlein line are presented. Glycerol was used as a dielectric to obtain a 14.5 Ω line which in conjunction with a Marx generator driver could produce 5 nsec long 240kV pulses. The line, which is small enough to be housed in a Lucite box 30 cm wide×30 cm long×13 cm thick, was used to drive a bank of four 2.2 m long×30 cm wide×7.62 cm gap streamer chambers. Properties of the Blumlein line with water as the dielectric are also given and limitations on further shortening of the pulse are discussed.