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.