Development of a nanosecond high voltage pulser based on Semiconductor Opening Switch

Nanosecond pulser is widely used in beam injection and extraction. Semiconductor Opening Switch (SOS) is a type of high voltage diode with P+-P-N-N+ semiconductor structure, which has a great application prospect in pulse power technology for its notably short switching-off time, high repetition rate and large working current. The cutoff time of the SOS is dependent on the duration and amplitude of the pumping current, which may reach thousands of amperes. A two-stage magnetic compression pumping circuit without external demagnetization cicuits is proposed to meet the operational requirements of SOS. The circuit was simulated by Pspice, which confirmed the principle of the circuit. A prototype of the pulser was constructed based on the simulation analysis. The experiments indicated that the reverse pumping current with amplitude of 460 A and duration of 18 ns, and a 16 kV, duration of 14 ns pulse was generated on the load of 50 omega. The design, simulation and the test results of the nanosecond high voltage pulser are presented in the paper.