Capacitor and rail-gap development for the Atlas machine Marx modules

This paper presents the engineering issues and development criteria utilized to evolve the Atlas Marx bank pulse power components. The power capacitor and rail-gap required alterations from existing designs to minimize system inductance and component count, maximize reliability and enhance maintainability. For the power capacitors, development has resulted in a plastic cased device with double ended bushings. The design of the capacitors' output electrodes, foil packs and internal interconnect webbing results in a capacitor with improved performance. The capacitors are rated at 33.5 uF and 60 kV and are housed in a 28"/spl times/29"/spl times/13" fiberglass case. Terminal inductance is less than 15 nH with a design discharge current greater than 650 kA.