Study of a fast, high-impedance, high-voltage pulse divider

A novel two-tube, two-stage, self-compensating resistive voltage divider wi th minimized stray capacitance using copper sulphate solution was explored to measure a fast high-impulse voltage output from a cable Blumlein generat or. Self-compensation of the probe was achieved by matching the RC time con stant in the two dividing stages. Stray capacitance of the probe was minimi zed by electric field contouring and matching methods. Experiments were car ried out to investigate the probe responses as affected by self-capacitance , impedance, and stray capacitance. Calibration of the optimized probe show ed a rise time of 15 ns at a load impedance of 8.68 k Omega with a hold-off voltage of 600 kV. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.