Solid-State Pulser Development for High Power Dense Plasma Focus X-Ray Sources

Abstract

Solid-state pulsed power technology has been successfully applied to a high average power dense plasma focus (DPF) X-ray point source. In the past, electrode erosion and associated insulator lifetime have been the primary limiting factors for implementing a DPF X-ray source in a practical X-ray lithographic tool. The solid-state pulsed power supply described here uses fast-switching thyristors, diodes, and saturable magnetics to eliminate current reversal through the DPF electrodes. Anode erosion measurements show a mass loss of 25 µg/C with the solid-state driver, which indicates that an electrode set can last more than 5 million shots before refurbishment. The DPF source produces an average energy of 7.3 J per pulse into 4π steradians at 1.1 keV effective wavelength in ∼1 Torr of neon gas at pulse repetition rates up to 60 Hz. The X-ray yield efficiency is nominally 0.6%.