A Pulse Rising Edge Steepening Circuit Design for Marx Generators

In many applications of Marx generators, it is very common to introduce additional stray inductance caused by lengthened leads. It will cause the problem of slowing down the rising edge of the pulse, which will greatly limit the generation of short pulsewidth and fast edge pulses. To solve this problem, this article proposes a pulse rising edge steepening circuit (PRESC) topology based on the diode reverse recovery process. The PRESC is connected in parallel to the load and consists of a low-voltage dc supply, a resistor, a diode, and a capacitor. The working principle is analyzed, and the steepening efficiency under different working conditions is simulated. Finally, a Marx generator was used to test the performance of the PRESC. The results show that at the test condition of 3-kV output voltage, 1-Hz frequency, and 500-ns pulsewidth, the PRESC can optimally reduce the rising edge from 86.2 to 40.9 ns.