Reproducibility conditions for the pulsed X-ray emission in a vacuum sparkdischarge

In our laboratory, a 1 kJ vacuum spark device is developed as a pulsed X-ra y source for X-ray detector calibration and applications such as X-ray micr oscopy and microlithography. After our previous works for the X-ray emissio n maximization (up to around 10 J per pulse), this paper analyses the influ ence of four different triggering systems on the X-ray emission reproducibi lity. The main conclusion is that a high-power, very fast high voltage trig ger pulse is required. In order to fulfill these conditions, a pulse transf ormer and an air spark gap have been added to the initial triggering device (a magnetic pulse compression circuit). With the new trigger pulse (20 J/p ulse, 50 ns rise-time, 22 kV amplitude in an open circuit) a reasonable X-r ay emission reproducibility is obtained.