HIGH-POWER, SHORT-PULSE GENERATORS BASED ON INDUCTION VOLTAGE ADDERS

High-power, short-pulse generators based on induction voltage adders were identified by the pulsed power community as the most important recent advance in this field These systems use linear induction accelerator modules and self-magnetically insulated vacuum transmission lines to generate high-voltage (tens of megavolts), moderate-impedance (less-than-or-equal-to 200-OMEGA), short-duration (tens of nanoseconds) output pulses. Hermes III is a 20-MV, 16-TW electron beam accelerator and represents the most powerful implementation to date of the induction voltage adder technology. In this article we describe how these systems function, identify their advantages and limitations, and discuss present and proposed future applications.