Progress on the 4-cavity BLUE LTD System at the University of Michigan

Abstract

BLUE is a 4-cavity Linear Transformer Driver (LTD) system that, in the past, was a part of the Ursa Minor Experiment at Sandia National Laboratories and, currently, is under construction in the University of Michigan’s Plasma, Pulsed Power and Microwave Laboratory. The first LTD cavity was successfully assembled and tested in 2020 [1] . The second cavity is presently being assembled. When complete, the 4-cavity BLUE system will store up to 8 kJ of initial energy, which can be released as an 800-kV (open circuit), 100-ns pulse. This pulse can be coupled with different loads, including high-power microwave (HPM) loads (e.g., magnetrons) and high-energy-density physics (HEDP) loads (e.g., x pinches, z pinches, and dense plasma focuses). Of particular interest is the HPM load called the magnetically insulated line oscillator (MILO) [2] . Due to its low impedance (< 10 Ω) and high current requirements, the MILO may be well suited to use with and LTD driver. We will provide updates on the BLUE system construction and present recent experimental data from a MILO driven by BLUE.