A Two-Stage DSRD-Based High-Power Nanosecond Pulse Generator

Drift step recovery diodes (DSRDs) have a special place in high-power short-pulse generation. In this paper, a cascaded configuration of two DSRD-based high-power short-pulse generators with gas discharge switches was used. The high-power pulses generated in the first stage feed the second stage in order to generate shorter pulses with higher peak powers. A prototype was implemented based on this idea. In the first stage, 1.2-kV pulses were generated from a 50-V power supply. At the output of the second stage, 2.1-kV pulses with a repetition rate of more than 50 Hz were obtained. The output peak voltage was limited by the breakdown voltage of the used DSRD. Repetitive pulses with 4-ns rise time and 1.3-kW peak power were obtained. The maximum input power was 4.1 W which showed 320 times increase in the peak power. The maximum efficiency of 20% was obtained.