A NESTED HIGH VOLTAGE GENERATOR APPROACH TO HPM PULSE POWER

IN ORDER TO OVERCOME THE LIMITATIONS OF PRESENT HIGH POWER MICROWAVE SOURCES, A NEW TYPE OF PULSE POWER SYSTEM IS PROPOSED AS THE MOTIVE POWER FOR HIGH POWER MICROWAVE GENERATORS. BY BUILDING UP A DC HIGH POWER SOURCE FROM A NUMBER OF DC HIGH VOLTAGE MODULES WHICH ARE NESTED INSIDE ONE ANOTHER, VERY HIGH VOLTAGES CAN BE PRODUCED IN SMALL PACKAGES. NO TWO CONDUCTORS NEED TO BE INSULATED FOR VOLTAGES EXCEEDING 50-100 KV. PULSE DISCHARGE CAPACITORS OR PULSE FORMING NETWORKS CAN BE PLACED INSIDE EACH CELL IN ORDER TO PRODUCE FLATTOPPED PULSES. THIS CONFIGURATION CAN BE USED TO EITHER DRIVE A SEPARATE ELECTRON BEAM GENERATOR, OR THE ELECTRON BEAM CAN BE PRODUCED INSIDE THE GENERATOR ITSELF. THE NESTED GENERATOR CAN ALSO BE CONFIGURED FOR EFFICIENT ENERGY RECOVERY EVEN WHEN THE BEAM ELECTRONS HAVE LOST DIFFERING AMOUNTS OF ENERGY. IN THIS PAPER, A DETAILED INVESTIGATION OF THE POSSIBLE CONFIGURATIONS WILL BE PERFORMED. EMPHASIS WILL BE PLACED ON DEVELOPING THE CONVENTIONAL PULSE POWER GENERATOR CONFIGURATION, INCLUDING ASSOCIATED SWITCHING AND PULSE FORMING ISSUES. EXPERIMENTS WILL ALSO BE PERFORMED ON THE EXISTING NESTED HIGH VOLTAGE GENERATOR AT NSRC IN ORDER TO DETERMINE THE ACHIEVABLE VOLTAGE GRADIENT ON THE INSULATION MATERIAL USED IN THE EXPERIMENT. ENERGY RECOVERY, AND GATED, PULSED ELECTRON BEAM GENERATION WILL ALSO BE STUDIED.