Review on recent developments in pulsed high power systems

Pulsed power is a broad, multi-disciplinary field that focuses on compressing electrical energy in time and expanding it into high peak power pulses. In the field of accelerators, this will result in higher reliability systems with excellent efficiencies rivaling switch mode power supplies requiring less-frequent maintenance cycles. While developments in the field of pulsed power extend beyond accelerator systems employing recent technological innovations. Due to space constraints, this paper will attempt to focus and highlight that particular area of development. The demand for more compact, higher density systems for military and airborne applications should force the enabling technologies to keep pace with the semiconductor switches, resulting in size reduction and efficiency improvements in all future systems.