On the road to compact pulsed power: adventures in materials, electromagnetic modeling, and thermal management

Abstract

Pulsed power is a technology that is suited to drive applications requiring very large power pulses in short bursts. One such application is the generation of narrowband high power microwaves (HPM's) Barker, RJ et al. (2001). For this application, in addition to high peak power levels, considerable energy per pulse is also required. Whereas capacitor-based pulsed power systems driving HPM sources are found in laboratories across the globe, the desire to drive these very same loads on mobile platforms has motivated a basic research program in compact pulsed power. This paper describes our adventures on the road to compact pulsed power. In our research program we have identified three areas that are critical to achieving more compact systems that are of interest to HPM: (1) materials research-this implies the development of new materials, such as high dielectric constant, high breakdown strength ceramics, in addition to achieving a better understanding of the transient properties of liquid and gaseous dielectrics that are common to pulsed power systems; (2) electromagnetic modeling-this is critical to not only designing optimal topologies and distributions of materials in pulse forming lines, but also highlights the importance of electromagnetically deconvolving data that is measured downstream from a switch, for example, and correlating it with the dynamics of the arc within the switch itself; (3) thermal management-inevitably, compact pulsed power systems will pose a significant challenge to conventional cooling techniques. Limitations imposed by mobile platforms further exacerbate this problem. One approach to thermal management is high fluence convective cooling using microchannel heat sinks. This paper will conclude with a discussion of how advances in these areas can affect the state-of-the-art in compact pulsed power.