Solid-state pulser development for high power dense plasma focus X-ray sources

Solid-state pulsed power technology has been successfully applied to a high average power dense plasma focus (DPF) X-ray point source. In the past, el ectrode erosion and associated insulator lifetime have been the primary lim iting factors for implementing a DPF X-ray source in a practical X-ray lith ographic tool. The solid-state pulsed power supply described here uses fast -switching thyristors, diodes, and saturable magnetics to eliminate current reversal through the DPF electrodes. Anode erosion measurements show a mas s loss of 25 mu g/C with the solid-state driver, which indicates that an el ectrode set can last more than 5 million shots before refurbishment. The DP F source produces an average energy of 7.3 J per pulse into 4 pi steradians at 1.1 keV effective wavelength in similar to 1 Torr of neon gas at pulse repetition rates up to 60 Hz. The X-ray yield efficiency is nominally 0.6%.