A TTL-controlled trigger generator with rise-time of nanosecond level

A TTL-controlled trigger generator based on pulse transformer and peaking switch is constructed in this paper. The trigger system is composed of two units, which the trigger signal is amplified step-by-step from 5V TTL to 100kV. A dry-type pulse transformer with a winding ratio of 4 is presented. A self-breakdown peaking switch is used to shorten the rise-time of the output pulse. Experiment results show that breakdown voltage of peaking switch should be around 80%~90% of peak value on peaking capacitor, with both lower jitter and lower latter pulse energy. The output pulse of the trigger generator with a peak value of 60kV~120kV, and a rise-time of less than 15ns is suitable for various high voltage switches.