Fast opening diamond switch for high voltage, high average power inductive energy store modulators

A prototype diamond switch was used to demonstrate an inductive energy store (IES) power amplifier. A /spl sim/100 A/1 /spl mu/s pulse at 500 V was sharpened to a 7 kV/30 ns pulse using a 10 mm dia. A CVD diamond switch with a 3 mm/sup 2/ active area. Controlled turn-off of the diamond switch showed a dR/dt/spl ap/4/spl times/10/sup 11/ /spl Omega//s, when the trigger e-beam was switched off in 10 ns. Intrinsic turn-off times of /spl ap/1 ns appear feasible. A 4 kJ/20 kV/10 Hz rep-rate modular bremsstrahlung simulator is designed based on an array of such diamond switches.