High-power, repetitive-stacked blumlein pulsers commutated by a single switching element

The stacked Blumlein pulse generators developed at the University of Texas at Dallas consist of several triaxial Blumleins stacked in series at one en d. The lines are charged in parallel and synchronously commutated,vith a si ngle switching element at the other end. In this way, relatively low chargi ng voltages are multiplied to give a higher desired voltage across an arbit rary load. Extensive characterization of the stacked Blumlein pulsers indic ates that these devices are capable of producing high-power pulses with ris etimes and repetition rates in the range of 0.3-50 ns and 1-300 Hz, respect ively, using a conventional thyratron, spark gap, or photoconductive switch . This paper presents the progress in the development and use of these nove l pulsers, Recent adaptation of the design has enabled the stacked Blumlein to produce 50-70 MW nanosecond pulses with risetimes on the order of 200-3 00 ps into nominally matched loads. The device has a compact line geometry and is commutated by a single photoconductive switch triggered by a low pow er laser diode.