RE: 400kV Marx Generator Pictures

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Mccauley, Daniel H by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <daniel.h.mccauley-at-lmco-dot-com>

 > >Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>
 > >Firstly, thanks all for your great help.  I'm just about
 > finished my 400kV
 > >Marx Generator and once I build my charging supply, will be
 > able to run it.
 > >The device is a bit crude (non-triggered primary gap, lossy
 > - corona prone
 > >connections), but will serve as a first step in developing
 > working knowledge
 > >of these
 > >things as my primary purpose will be to design and build one
 > capable of
 > >producing a extremely short duration (<1ns) pulses at maybe
 > a million volts
 >
 > hmm. not sure if you will get less than 1ns discharges with
 > those caps. It
 > migth be possible with some small mica caps.
 > Does anybody have info on the slew rate you can get with some
 > of these
 > caps? I know the manufacturer tends to specify "safe" ratings
 > in dv/dt
 > usually in kV/uS, still not near anything near 1nS, even with
 > some sort of
 > pulse forming network
 > KEN

Actually I'm definitely not going to get less than 1ns (probably not even
less than 1us) pulses with this thing.
I state above that this marx
generator is only a crude first-device which will be used to develop
experience with these things as I want to
build one (future) capable of a million volts and less than 1ns pulse.
Also, since rise time is mostly determined
by the electrical lengths (distributed impedances) of the discharge paths,
having 13-stages would also limit rise-time
as well.  The fastest marx generators i've seen typically have about 6-8
stages, and output impedances of about 50-75 ohms.

I'm not even sure how these capacitors will hold up.  I'll be happy if they
at least work a few times before blowing up.

The Captain