A Solid-State High Voltage Trigger for HEDP Application

Thyratron-based generators are used to trigger higher voltage switches at the Z Machine at Sandia National Laboratory. The trigger generator long-term availability, reliability, and lead times are a concern for future projects. Thyratrons need stable, high-current, low-voltage power sources, have long warm-up times, and require conditioning shots to achieve a stable operating point. When measured over short timescales, thyratrons typically have a jitter of a few nanoseconds, but over longer timescales, they can have a much larger drift.

Eagle Harbor Technologies (EHT) Inc. developed a prototype solid-state thyratron replacement to trigger higher voltage spark-gap switches typically used in these HEDP applications to address the needs of Sandia and other pulsed-power laboratories. The first-generation EHT solid-state thyratron replacement can produce 20 kV pulses into 50 Ω with a sub-10 ns rise time and 100 ns e-folding fall time. The unit is designed to be compact and low cost. EHT will present the design tradeoff study, selected topology, and key waveforms results.