Current pulse shaping of load on Primary Test Stand facility

A series of current pulse shaping experiments have been carried out on the Primary Test Stand(PTS). More than 5 MA peak current were successfully achieved on the load with a rise time of 600 ns. The typical rise time of PTS machine is 90 ns with about 10 MA peak current under short pulse mode, which means all 24 modules discharged simultaneously. By distributing the laser trigger target time of 12 laser beams logically and adjusting the status of the pulse output switch, longer rise time pulse can be obtained on the PTS facility. According to the required pulse shaping, whole circuit simulation will be used to calculate the trigger time of each laser triggered gas switch and the status of the pulse output switches. The experimental results indicate that the rise time of the current is determined by the time difference between the first and last triggered gas switches, normally it should be less than the transition time of the two neighboring modules. In order to trigger the laser triggered gas switch, sufficient laser power is needed to be sent into the gap of the gas switch, the gas switch press and voltage difference on the two electrodes also affects the triggering of the gas switch. The voltage difference is determined by the switchs transition time. The study and experiments of the pulse shaping on PTS show the adaptable ability of the PTS for offering different waveform of mega ampere current pulse for different research purpose.