A compact low impedance angular distribution Blumlein-type pulse forming network

A pulse forming network (PFN) has the advantages of compactness and long pulse achievability, which could meet the requirements of military and industrial applications of pulsed power technology well. In this paper, a compact low impedance Blumlein-type PFN based on ceramic capacitors is investigated numerically and experimentally. Generally, in order to increase the compactness of the PFN, an angular distribution and an axially parallel connected structure with a theoretical peak energy density of up to 5.8 J/L are employed. The dimensions of the PFN are Φ 560 × 345 mm². A sharpening switch, which can efficiently reduce rise-time of the output pulses, is utilized to improve the performance of the PFN. The compact low impedance Blumlein-type PFN was assembled in our laboratory. The results of low voltage experiments show that the PFN could generate quasi-square pulses with an output power of 50 MW and a peak voltage of approximately 13.2 kV on a matched dummy load. Impedance and output pulse duration of the PFN are 3 Ω and 135 ns, respectively. The results of high voltage experiments show that pulses with a power of about 1 GW and an energy density of about 2.5 J/L were obtained. Experiments show reasonable agreement with numerical analysis.