A set up for nanosecond pulsed electric field investigations on biological cells

This paper proposes and experimental and numerical analysis of a complete set-up to expose cell lines to nanosecond high voltage pulses. The system is composed by a nanopulses generator, based on microstrip line technology combined with photoconductive switches, and a standard electroporation cuvette. Voltage measurements on a 50 Ω generator able to deliver pulses of different shape and duration have been performed. While numerical analysis on the biological cuvette is proposed. Results highlight the suitability of the generator to deliver well-controlled pulse in term of duration shape and amplitude. For what concern the electrode cuvette, it results particularly suitable for working with quite long pulse (i.e. >;2ns). For shorter pulses (<; 2 ns) the system is, in fact, rather limited due to the impedance mismatches.