Process and Logic of the Diode Studies Program for a 6-10 MV Flash X-ray Machine

Summary form only given. CEA/DAM has been working for some years on the design of high pulse power diodes for flash X-ray radiography. In a near future, we will have to install an optimised diode on a new generator. To define this diode, we have first prospect on the capability on different technologies in term of efficiency for flash X-ray radiography. That prospecting implies numerical calculations, diagnostic development and experiment on the 6 MV ASTERIX or 1.5 MV ANGELIX Marx generators. We present here how we process and our logic to be able to construct an up-to-date and evaluating technology based on machine. Following this process we have had interesting results with positive polarity rod pinch diode, and magnetically immersed diode. The progress we made for the calculations, with the LSP PIC code, permitted us to design a negative polarity rod pinch diode as proposed by G. Cooperstein. This diode has been tested in 2004 on ASTERIX and has shown a good agreement between experimental results and numerical predictions