Sweep circuit design for a picosecond streak camera

Abstract

A review of the operation of a streak camera is presented. This is followed by a discussion of measurement techniques with time resolutions on the order of 1 ps using the streak camera. A sweep circuit design is presented using power metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). The sweep circuit generates two ramps of +or-2 kV in amplitude. With these ramps sweep times of less than 5 ns (125 ps mm-1) to greater than 200 ns are achieved. The time-base variation is adjustable with a DC voltage provided by a front-panel potentiometer (knob) similar to an oscilloscope.