Development of a High Peak Voltage Picoseconds Avalanche Transistor Based Marx Bank Circuit

Avalanche transistor-based Marx bank circuit (MBC) is widely used to generate high voltage nanosecond pulses with high amplitude, high repetition rate, fast rise time, and low jitter. Researchers have tried to modify the circuit structure by using parallel or series avalanche transistors to increase peak power. However, in this work, the detailed process of analyzing and designing a compact Marx generator using avalanche transistors will be described. The purpose of this article is to report our experimental observations on the mechanism of operation of the MBCs. By studying the influence of amplitude and pulse width of the trigger circuit, a Gaussian pulse with a rising edge of 160 ps, full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 660 ps, and amplitude of 5000 V are obtained. The design improves the output voltage and pulse repetition frequency (PRF) effectively while reducing the use of the number of transistors. Based on the conventional principles of avalanche transistors and Marx circuit, a list of useful and interesting conclusions obtained from experiments will be reported.