Investigation of Solid-State Parallel Switching in Pulsed Power Systems Using Thyristors and Ferrite Coils

Two solid-state switching techniques had been investigated as a study for pulsed power applications comparing ferrite coil-assisted thyristor triggering and amplified gate thyristors (AGTs). The goal is to support the development of discharge drivers such as solid-state switched Linear Transformer Drivers (LTDs) and impedance-matched Marx generators (IMGs), which rely on synchronized, parallel discharge of capacitive subcircuits to deliver high-power pulses. To evaluate synchronization accuracy and pulse reliability, five circuit configurations were designed and experimentally tested. These setups used ferrite coils or AGTs to trigger one or more thyristors from a single capacitor, exploring parallel and shared-capacitor arrangements to assess current sharing and pulse compression viability in switch-capacitor modules. The results show that ferrite-assisted triggering allows for nearly lossless energy transfer and precise timing alignment between modules. It demonstrated the potential of ferrite-based switching as a fast, energy-efficient, and scalable alternative to resistive AGT systems. These findings position ferrite-triggered systems as strong candidates for advanced pulsed power applications, including plasma physics experiments, Z-pinch devices, and inertial confinement fusion technologies.