Megaampere Submicrosecond Generator GIT-32

Abstract

The GIT-32 is current generator developed by IHCE for Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), devoted for experiments with current carrying pulsed plasma. Main parts of the generator are capacitor bank and multichannel multi-gap spark switch. Generator consists of four identical sections, connected in parallel to one load. Capacitor bank is assembled from 32 IEK-100-0.17 (0.17 muF, 40 nH, 100 kV) capacitors, connected in parallel. It stores ~ 20 kl at 85 kV charging voltage. Each two capacitors are commuted to a load by multi-gap spark switch, which is able to commute by 8 parallel channels. Inductance of the generator is ~ 10 nH, internal resistance ~ 0.005 Ohm. The GIT-32 generator was tested with 10, 15 and 20 nH inductive loads. At 10 nH load and 80 kV of charging voltage it provides 1 MA of current amplitude with 500 ns risetime with damping resistors in discharge circuit and 1.34 MA/570 ns without resistors. The generator operates reliably without any adjustments in 40divide80 kV range of charging voltage. The maximum jitter at 40 kV charging voltage is about 7 ns. The generator is quite compact: dimensions are 3300 x 3300 x 400 mm3 and total weight is about 2500 kg.