Design of a 150 kV 300 A 100 Hz Blumlein coaxial pulser for long-pulse operation

Blumlein pulse generators have been used with great success for high voltage pulse generation. They are capable of producing pulses in the nanosecond or microsecond ranges depending on the transmission line length and on the topology used. The main problem with this type of generators relates to the presence of stray lines that degrade the overall gain of the device. In this paper, we are proposing a design method of a 150 kV/300 A coaxial Blumlein pulser with pulse duration of 1 /spl mu/s in which the parasitic effects are minimized by winding the transmission lines on coil formers. Also we have developed a model that estimates the pulser voltage gain from just two parameters: the number of stages and the impedance ratio of the transmission line characteristic impedance and the parasitic secondary mode impedance. The model can be applied to other types of Blumlein generators with different geometries such as those made of strip transmission lines.