COMPACT SOLID STATE HIGH REPETITION RATE VARIABLE AMPLITUDE PULSE GENERATOR

Presented is a solid state high repetition-rate pulse generator with adjustable output amplitude, together with a resonant LC charger. This pulse generator was designed for transient plasma production for ignition and other aerospace plasma applications. The design of the pulse-forming network makes use of commercially available insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) switching a capacitor bank into a METGLAS transformer together with a Fitch voltage doubling circuit. The capacitor bank is charged to 1 kV by a resonant LC charger, also switched by a commercial IGBT. The output of the pulse generator is controlled by the gate voltage of the IGBTs. Pulses with a width of 40ns can be generated with repetition rates up to 10 kHz. The amplitude can be controlled from 9 kV to 38 kV into a 500 Omega load.