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Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Study on an Avalanche Transistor-Based

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 43, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2015
Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Study on an
Avalanche Transistor-Based Marx Generator
Jiangtao Li, Member, IEEE, Xu Zhong, Jianhao Li, Zheng Liang, Wenzhong Chen, Zheng Li, and Tao Li
Abstract— High-voltage, nanosecond, high-repetitive-
frequency, and portable pulse generators are always required
in many fields. Avalanche transistor-based Marx circuits have
been widely studied to generate pulses satisfying the above
requirements. However, the basic topology of an avalanche
transistor-based circuit, configuration of circuit parameters,
and optimal working performance (including output impedance
matching) were still scarcely discussed. In this paper, the
detailed process of analyzing and designing a compact Marx
generator using avalanche transistors was described. Based
on the conventional principles of avalanche transistors and
Marx circuit, a list of useful and interesting conclusions was
discovered by experiment. An example with specific parameter
requirements was utilized for the clearness of illustration. The
12 cm × 4 cm Marx circuit could finally generate pulses with
a 2.5-kV amplitude, 6.0-ns width, 10-kHz repetitive frequency,
lower than a 100-ps jitter and ∼125-kW maximum peak output
power on a matched 50- resistive load. The pulse amplitude
could be adjusted from 1.5 to 2.5 kV and the pulse width could
also be broadened. This paper may help to provide a reference
to similar methods of producing high-voltage, nanosecond, and
high-repetitive-frequency pulses.
Index Terms— Avalanche breakdown, impedance matching,
jitter, Marx generators.
I. I NTRODUCTION
I N MANY fields, such as distance measurement [1],
underground object exploration [2]–[4], and automobile
traffic control [5], a high-voltage, nanosecond, high-repetitive-
frequency, and portable pulse generator is always required.
Taking pulse radar as an example, pulses with nanosecond
or even subnanosecond width can facilitate the accurate
detecting purpose. To expand the detecting range and increase
the signal-to-noise ratio of the receiver, high-amplitude pulses
are always demanded. It also requires high enough repetitive
frequency except for narrow pulse width to guarantee high
detecting accuracy. Furthermore, miniaturization is always
regarded as an important target for pulse generators.
To satisfy the requirements above, the solid switch-based
circuit is a promising candidate. Compared with spark gap,
Manuscript received November 29, 2014; revised April 4, 2015; accepted
May 19, 2015. Date of publication June 5, 2015; date of current version
October 7, 2015.
J. Li is with the School of Electrical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University,
Xi’an 710049, China (e-mail: li_jiangtao@mail.xjtu.edu.cn).
X. Zhong, J. Li, Z. Liang, W. Chen, Z. Li, and T. Li are with Xi’an
Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China (e-mail: jinzhongjiuri@163.com;
774598000@qq.com; 372312327@qq.com; 13484628353@163.com;
lzhit1920@126.com; 490158011@qq.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2015.2436373
0093-3813 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
3399
a solid switch can provide a much higher operating frequency,
higher stability, higher controllability, and with a tiny size.
Typical solid switches include magnetic switch, Insulated
Gate Bipolar Transistor, power MOSFET, step recovery
diode (SRD), avalanche transistor, and so on. Many methods of
generating fast high-voltage pulses using these solid switches
have been reported [6]–[14]. To ensure the pulse width in
nanosecond or even subnanosecond regime, SRDs [9], [10]
and avalanche transistors [11]–[14] may be widely preferred
due to their ultrafast switching characteristics. However, the
breakdown voltage is hardly up to 100 V for a single SRD,
and the total switching time may sacrifice severely when
connecting several devices in series for high-voltage purpose.
Fortunately, specifically designed for avalanche mode opera-
tion, avalanche transistor can provide extremely high switching
speed (100 V/ns or greater), and the breakdown voltage of a
single transistor can be higher than 300 V and it can bear over
4 × 1011 continuous operations under pulses of a 60-A peak
current and a 20-ns pulse width without failures. It is conve-
nient for them to be stacked in series, parallel or Marx bank
for higher voltage/current purposes. As for high-repetitive-
frequency purpose, avalanche transistor can stably work
under a repetitive rate up to tens of kilohertz. Furthermore,
avalanche transistors are usually available in surface-mount
package to enable miniature size and low inductance designs.
Approaches of producing high-voltage nanosecond
pulses using avalanche transistors have been studied in recent
decades [11]–[20]. For example, pulses with a 4-kV amplitude
and a 1-ns rise time were obtained by Indian scholars
Oak et al. [12] and Rai et al. [13] using an avalanche
transistor Marx circuit in the 1990s; American and Japanese
scholars Heeren et al. [15] and Ueno et al. [16] designed
portable Marx generators with adjustable pulse width for
microplasma applications by studying the operating properties
of BJTs. However, discussions on the basic topology of
avalanche transistor-based circuit, configuration of circuit
parameters, and optimal working performance (including
output impedance matching) were not fully carried out.
In this paper, a detailed theoretical and experimental study
on a portable avalanche transistor-based Marx generator will
be presented, from which several interesting and important
conclusions have to be produced. Among the whole study,
a further understanding can be acquired on the working
characteristics of an avalanche transistor and Marx circuit.
Moreover, this research of designing compact Marx generator
may be helpful to similar methods of producing high-voltage
nanosecond pulses.
3400
Fig. 1. Classical circuit diagram of an avalanche transistor.
II. A NALYSIS AND P REPARATION
A. Avalanche Transistor Circuit
Avalanche transistors are characterized by a negative resis-
tance region in their u CE -i C breakdown curves, where u CE is
the voltage across the collector and emitter and i C is the
current flowing into the collector. When appropriate external
circuitry is employed to the base of an avalanche-biased
transistor, switching of very high currents in only several
nanoseconds could be triggered due to the effect of avalanche
multiplication. A classical circuit diagram of the avalanche
transistor is presented in Fig. 1. The transistor is initially in
OFF -state and the capacitor C2 was charged to approximately
the supply voltage VCC via resistor RC and R L , biasing the
transistor in avalanche region. There is an extremely small
current i flowing in loop ①. Then a positive trigger signal will
suddenly switch the transistor to ON-state. The energy stored
in C2 will simultaneously be released along loop ② in a very
high current, producing a negative voltage pulse on R L . The
pulse rise time is mainly determined by the switching speed
of transistor, while the pulse amplitude and fall time depend
on the values of VCC , C2 , and R L .
A single-transistor circuit shown in Fig. 1 was used to test
the operating characteristics of FMMT417. A high-voltage
probe PPE6kV with a 400-MHz measuring bandwidth and
a digital oscilloscope TDS3054 with a 500-MHz measuring
bandwidth and a 2.5-Gs/s sampling rate were used to
record the data. The breakdown voltages VCEO and VCBO of
FMMT417 were measured to be 180 and 350 V, respectively,
using a similar method with [16]. It is no problem to choose a
supply voltage between 180 and 350 V. In this paper, a 300 V
supply voltage was chosen for the convenience of calculations
and to guarantee high enough output amplitude as well as
avoid permanent damages of the transistors.
A larger main capacitance or load resistance results in
higher output amplitude, but with a saturated tendency.
In theory, the pulse amplitude is no longer greater than the
supply voltage 300 V, but our experimental results indicated
that some measured values exceeded the limit. In fact, this
phenomenon was caused by the inevitable negative overshoot
with the instantaneous switching of the transistor. The
unpredictable LC oscillation in loop ② (Fig. 1) might be the
reason for the overshoot.
The measured u CE –i C curve of the transistor when
R L = 50  and C = 1.0 nF is drawn in Fig. 2. The
sampling period is 400 ps and it is observed that the rise
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 43, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2015
Fig. 2. Experimental voltage–current curve of FMMT417 as R L = 50 
and C = 1.0 nF. The time interval of the visable data points is 400 ps. The
four red stars represent the main inflection points of the curve neglecting the
recoil part.
time of the output pulse is ∼4 ns (10% to 90%). The
measured recoil part when i C exceeds 4.5 A represents the
overshoot stated above, which actually made no difference
to the intrinsic characteristic of the transistor. The main
inflection points are marked and the u CE –i C curve might be
replaced by three straight lines, respectively, from points (1),
(2), (3), and (4). Therefore, the avalanche transistor may be
sequentially equivalent to three constant resistances R1−2 ,
R2−3 , and R3−4 during the conducting period. It is easy
to estimate the values R1−2 ≈ −60 , R2−3 ≈ 2 ,
and R3−4 ≈ 25 .
B. Experimental Principles of Avalanche
Transistor-Base Marx Circuit
The output amplitude can be remarkably improved by
simply connecting a number of avalanche transistors in series,
but with the price of much higher supply voltage [12]–[14].
In view of such situation, Marx circuit is usually a preferred
choice.
An n-stage Marx circuit using avalanche transistors as the
switches is shown in Fig. 3(a). The resistors RC1 ∼ RCn and
 ∼ R
RC1 Cn are the charging/block resistors that provide the
charge pathways for C1 ∼ Cn in the quiescent state and isolate
the transient signal from the dc source and ground. Similar to
the single-transistor circuit, Q1 ∼ Qn are in OFF-state and
C1 ∼ Cn are all charged to nearly VCC in the quiescent state.
Then Q1 will be triggered to switch ON, and sequentially
Q2 ∼ Qn in several nanoseconds [18], [19]. Therefore, on
the load, a negative high-voltage pulse could be obtained by
adding the capacitor voltages.
However, the actual discharge principles may not be easily
understood. For further clarification, a 5-stage Marx circuit
was tested using an avalanche transistor ZETEX FMMT417.
The supply voltage VCC was 300 V and the load resistance R L
was 50 . The concerned voltage waveforms during the
conduction process are shown in Figs. 4 and 5.
From Fig. 4, it is obvious that the conductions of the five
transistors were not synchronous but in sequence. Especially,
transistor Q1 , which was triggered at t = ∼ 5 ns with no block
LI et al.: THEORETICAL ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON AN AVALANCHE TRANSISTOR-BASED MARX GENERATOR
Fig. 3. (a) Schematic of an n-stage avalanche transistor-based Marx circuit.
(b) Equivalent discharging circuit. The resistances ri (i = 1, 2, . . . , n) are
the equivalent conduction resistance of each stage, including the conduction
resistances of the avalanche transistor and main capacitor of each stage, and
even including the influences of the parasitic capacitance. Voltage E is the
initial voltage across each main capacitor before discharge.
Fig. 4. u Q1 ∼ u Q5 represent the voltage across the collector and emitter of
transistors Q1 ∼ Q5 in the 5-stage Marx circuit. −u O represents the reverse
output voltage of the 5-stage Marx circuit. Points a to e respectively indicates
the switching moments of transistors Q1 ∼ Q5 .
resistor at the emitter end, switched first. During the period,
the slow dropping of voltage u Q1 resulted in a synchronous
slow rising of u Q2 , while bringing no overvoltage onto the
3401
Fig. 5. Waveforms of the right-side voltages of capacitors. u C1β ∼ u C5β
respectively represents the voltage at the right side of capacitors C1 ∼ C5 ,
as marked in Fig. 2(a).
latter transistors. If without transistors Q2 ∼ Q5 , u Q1 would
continue dropping until achieving second breakdown and
reaching the minimum value. But the overvoltage on Q2
caused a sudden second breakdown of Q2 at a proper moment,
∼20.5 ns, in Fig. 4, lifting u Q1 . From this moment on, a fast
overvoltage would be, respectively, applied onto the following
three transistors, rapidly and sequentially switching them ON.
Noting the marked points a, b, c, d, and e, the switching
moments of a previous transistor were always earlier than
the following one. At t = ∼ 22.5 ns, the last transistor began
to switch ON due to the overvoltage and it pumped the
voltage on the load, |u O |, to rise at a very high speed. After
around 5.5 ns, the output voltage reached the peak value and
the voltages across the five transistors generally dropped to
zero. The long response time of Q2 and the relatively short
ones of Q2 ∼ Q5 indicate that a faster overvoltage may lead to
a more effective avalanche breakdown of avalanche transistors.
Fig. 5 may help to further verify the analyses above.
When the trigger signal arrived, the first transistor achieved
first breakdown the earliest, simultaneously pulling down
the right-side voltage of capacitor C1 . Meanwhile, the other
four transistors were still in high impedance state, and thus
u C2β ∼ u C5β did not fall. It is clear in Fig. 5 that the
switching ON of the rear stage lagged behind the front stage,
and the generation of the output pulse did not appear until the
moment the last stage was switched ON. This perspective is
accessible although it is different from the current-controlled
mechanism proposed in [20].
Complementally, it can be confirmed that the output time
delay as well as the jitter of the Marx circuit is domi-
nantly determined by the first two transistors (stages). Our
experiments also demonstrated that the insufficient value of
block resistances is the major factor causing the asynchronous
switching of Q2 ∼ Q5 . Fortunately, this asynchrony has no
effect on the front edge of the output pulse. But, on the other
hand, a severe energy loss may be caused by too small block
resistance due to the high leakage current, i.e., higher pulse
amplitude could be generally obtained with a greater value of
block resistance. This would be significant for the following
design and configuration.
3402
III. D ESIGN AND C ONFIGURATION
For clear description and easier understanding, a design
example with specific parameters will be utilized in this
section. The major parameters aimed to be achieved for a
portable nanosecond high-voltage pulse generator may be as
follows: a unipolar Gaussian waveform on a 50  load, shorter
than 15-ns bottom width, higher than 2-kV amplitude and
10 kHz repetitive frequency, less than 100-ps jitter.
A. Parameter Analysis and Calculation
1) Number of Marx Stages: To estimate the number of
Marx stages, the pulse peak value should be focused on and
thus the equivalent resistance of avalanche transistors could be
regarded as R2−3 . Theoretically, the number of Marx stages
we needed was 2000/300 ≈ 7. However, the actually required
number of stages must be much larger because of the effect
of parasitic parameters. The equivalent discharging circuit is
shown in Fig. 3(b). Assuming that the actual number of stages
was n and ri = r (i = 1, 2, . . . , n), we have
RL
× n · E = Vm . (1)
r · n + RL
Hence, we can estimate the number of Marx stages as
R L Vm
n= . (2)
R L E − r Vm
It is acceptable that the equivalent resistance of each stage
is r = R2−3 + R , where R is the equivalent resistance of
each stage, including the conduction resistance of the main
capacitor as well as the effect of the parasitic capacitor.
Here, the effect of the loop inductance is neglected because it
dominantly affects the pulse rise time but has little influence
on the pulse amplitude. Based on the analysis in Section II-A
and referring the concerned conclusion in [15], the value of r
was roughly between 2.5  and 3.0 . Setting Vm = 2500 V
for enough margin, we have n = 14.3 ∼ 16.7 by (2). We have
chosen n = 16 for convenience of calculations in the following
section.
2) Main Capacitance: Usually, the main capacitors are
selected the same, i.e., Ci = C (i = 1, 2, . . . , n). In the
very short discharge period, the total capacitance should be
C/n as a result of treating all the main capacitors in series
[see Fig. 3(b)] [15], [16]. The period of the pulse back edge
is primarily determined by the time constant
C
τ1 = (n · r + R L ) ·. (3)
n this paper.
Then the pulse fall time can be written as
t f = [ln(0.9) − ln(0.1)] · τ1 ≈ 12.4C(ns) (4)
where the unit of C is nF. Considering that the pulse front
edge is ∼4 ns, we must force the back edge less than 10 ns
to satisfy the width requirement. Thus, we got C ≈ 800 pF
by (4). Obviously, a greater capacitance should be obtained
if requiring a longer pulse back edge (a broader pulse
width) in energy-required applications such as nonthermal
sterilization [21], [22].
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 43, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2015
3) Charging Resistance: Each time after the discharge,
the dc source will recharge all the main capacitors through
charging/block resistors and the charging time is proportional
to another time constant τ2 = RC · C, mainly deter-
mining the repetitive working frequency f . Here, we set
RCi = RCi  = R /2 (i = 1, 2, . . . , n). To guarantee the capac-
C
itors to be fully charged in the intervals of pulses, the repetitive
working period is usually required to be not shorter than 5τ2 ,
i.e., 1/ f ≥ 5RC C. Hence, we have
1
RC ≤ . (5)
5fC
When f = 10 kHz and C = 800 pF, we obtain
RC ≤ 25 k. Nevertheless, another task of charging resistors
is to isolate transient signals from dc source and ground,
requiring the resistance value, as stated in Section II-B, to
be large enough. Considering the tradeoff of the two require-

ments, RCi = RCi = 10 k was selected in this design
example.
4) Power Dissipation: Further attention must be paid to the
power dissipation calculations to guarantee the safe operations
of the devices. First, it requires the dc source to supply
enough power to avoid undesired amplitude reductions under
high repetitive operations. The source current rating should
be higher than the peak charging current Im . Assuming that
the energy stored in each capacitor is fully released in every
discharge, the peak charging current is calculated as 0.24 A
according to (6). Thus, a dc source rated 380 V and 0.5 A
was chosen in this paper
E
Im = n × . (6)
RC
The charging current conducted in every charging resistor is
approximately
 
t
i 0 = I0m exp − (7)
τ2
where I0m is the peak current through a charging resistor and
is calculated as I0m = Im /n = 0.015 A, and time constant
τ2 = RC · C = 1.6 × 10−5 (s). Now, we consider the power
dissipated on every charging resistor in a repetitive frequency
of 10 kHz
 1/ f
RC
PRc = f · i 02 × dt (8)
0 2
which determines that PRc ≈ 0.180 W. In view of such
requirement, chip resistors with 1812 package and a 1/2-W
rated power were selected as the charging resistors in
Next, it is significant to estimate the power dissipation of
each avalanche transistor to guarantee its thermal stability. The
output pulse waveform was desired to be best expressed by a
Gauss function. An even Gauss function about t can be easily
written as
   
t 2
u O (t) = Vm exp − . (9)
σ
Noting that the pulse bottom width is w = 15 ns, VO should
be 0.1 Vm when t = w/2, determining that σ ≈ 4.9 × 10−9 s.
LI et al.: THEORETICAL ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON AN AVALANCHE TRANSISTOR-BASED MARX GENERATOR 3403

Fig. 6. Photo of a 16-stage Marx bank based on avalanche transistors. The

board size is 12 cm × 4 cm.

During discharge, the current flowing through each transistor

in Fig. 2(b) approximately equals the one through the load.
Thus, the power dissipated on each avalanche transistor is
 +∞  
u O (t) 2
PQ = f · · r dt. (10)
−∞ RL
By (9) and (10) and setting Vm = 2.5 kV, we obtain
PQ ≈ 384 mW, slightly higher than the power dissipation
rating 330 mW of FMMT417. It is obvious that shorter
pulse width or lower repetitive frequency results in lower
power dissipation of the transistors. Consequently, a suspicion
appears whether the avalanche transistors can tolerate the
selected working conditions above. But as the datasheet of
FMMT417 shows, it can bear over 4 × 1011 continuous
operations under pulses of a 60-A peak avalanche current
and a 20-ns pulse width without failures. Compared with the
selected pulse parameters (a 50-A peak current and a 15-ns
Fig. 7. Output performances of the 8-stage test circuit with different capac-
pulse width), it may convince us that the avalanche transistors itors (type and capacitance). (a) Pulse amplitude versus different capacitors.
are capable of regularly working, but their thermal capabilities (b) Pulse rise time versus different capacitors.
must be improved if a higher repetitive frequency or output
amplitude is required for the generator.
As to any asymmetric pulse shape (back edge is longer than As we can see, a larger capacitance resulted in a higher output
front edge) or even flat top pulse shape, the device power amplitude with a saturated tendency, and a similar conclusion
dissipation can be similarly estimated using other kinds of is with the single-transistor circuit. The measured extremely
functions (such as double exponential function). small amplitude value when C = 500 pF might be explained
by that the energy initially stored in the front capacitors was
too low to sustain until the sufficient discharge of the rear
B. Experimental Setup capacitors. The pulse rise time was not regularly affected
To reduce any parasitic effect and reduce the size of the by various capacitance values because it mainly depends on
circuit board, the key point when designing the printed circuit the transistor switching speed. In addition, referring to the
board is to shorten the travel distance of the transient signal conclusion of [16], the variation range of the capacitance in
because the loop inductance may strongly affect the shape, this paper is relatively small, i.e., the dependence of switching
rise time, fall time, and width of the output pulses. It is also time for different capacitance could not be easily observed.
necessary to broaden the ground plane for the same reason. However, a slight influence on the rise time appeared with
On the circuit board shown in Fig. 6, all transistors and charg- different types of capacitors due to the different dielectric
ing/block resistors were in surface-mount package and located parameters of various materials. The performances degraded
compactly. The outside red clad region on the board is the wide (lower amplitudes and longer rise times) when using CBB and
ground plane. The main capacitors were placed between the ceramic capacitors could be attributed to their higher dielectric
charging capacitors and transistors. If the selected main capaci- losses, especially under high repetitive operations.
tors were inline packaged, like the mica capacitors being stated Considering both the output performances and pulse width,
below, they might be half fabricated on the back of the board. mica capacitors of 1 nF were finally selected. As shown
Except for switching devices, the electrical parameters of in Fig. 8, the number of Marx stages was increased from
the main capacitors also have strong effects on the output 8 to 16 and the amplitude was productively improved to
performances. An 8-stage Marx circuit was tested in this 2.3 kV with almost no sacrifice of 3.3 ns rise time, confirming
section and the effects of different main capacitors (type and that the number of Marx stages and the switching asynchrony
capacitance) on output performances are shown in Fig. 7. of transistors have no effect on the output pulse rise time.
3404
Fig. 8. Output performances for the number of Marx stages that was increased
from 8 to 16.
As we can see, the amplitude saturation tendency had
appeared from n = 12. The voltage adding efficiency would
remarkably decline if the number of stages was too large.
In addition, the pulse back edge of the final 16-stage output
might be somewhat long although all of the devices were
selected based on the credible calculations. Fortunately, the
method of properly reducing the capacitance of the last
stage always performed effectively, with nearly no sacrifice
of the amplitude. Furthermore, to restrain the undesired
trailing oscillation caused by the improper configuration of
loop inductance and capacitance, methods of configuring
supplemental grounded copper sheet and screening better
consistent mica capacitors were carried out.
The final output pulse amplitude was increased to 2.5 kV
with a 3.3-ns rise time and 6.0-ns half-peak width on a 50-
load. The waveforms of the Marx input trigger signal and
10 overlapped continuous output pulses are shown in Fig. 8.
The time delay of the Marx circuit bank Td is defined as the
duration from the arrival of the trigger signal to the time
moment when the output pulse achieving the peak value.
It shows that Td was ∼15 ns and the jitter was credibly
less than 100 ps. In addition, the generator was realized to
stably work under a single-trigger mode and repetitive mode
up to 10 kHz.
Up to now, all the requirements of this design example
had been satisfied or even advanced. However, this generator
could also be improved to be applied in some energy-required
applications, such as microplasma generation [15], [16] and
nonthermal sterilization [21], [22]. The main capacitance or
load resistance should be enlarged to maintain the necessary
pulse width. Meanwhile, the amplitude would be increased.
However, it must be noted that the avalanche transistor is
essentially designed for the use of short pulse generations due
to its small thermal capacity. In other words, a broader pulse
width can be easily realized only if reducing the avalanche
current flowing through the transistor. Thus, in the avalanche
transistor-based Marx circuit, a greater load resistance can
effectively and safely result in a broader pulse width and,
meanwhile, a lower current in the discharge loop. But a greater
main capacitance may thermally damage the transistors.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 43, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2015
Fig. 9. Waveforms of the input trigger signal and 10 continous output pulses.
Fig. 10. Output impedance and peak power as the load resistance is varied.
C. Maximum Peak Output Power
The output impedance of Marx generator is not a constant
and usually hard to estimate. If paying attention to the peak
output power, the maximum peak output power should be
tested and chosen by matching the source impedance and
the load resistance. The dependences of the source output
impedance r O and peak output power Pm for various load
resistances are shown in Fig. 9. Here, the output impedances
were determined by
n · E − Vm
rO = · RL (11)
Vm
where n · E represents the ideal voltage source, and n · E,
r O and R L are regarded to be kept in series in the transient
loop.
A larger load resistance resulted in a smaller output
impedance of the Marx source. However, the output impedance
was nearly the same as the load resistance at a special
intersection, where r O = 46  and R L = 50 . This
intersection indicates the maximum theoretical and
experimental peak output power ∼125 kW of the designed
Marx circuit. At this intersection, the experimental equivalent
conduction resistance of each stage of the 16-stage Marx
circuit r can also be estimated as ∼2.9 , verifying the
estimation in Section III-A. In addition, it is interesting to infer
that a 17-stage Marx circuit (r O ≈ 49 ) may better match
the 50  resistive load. When circuit configuration varies,
LI et al.: THEORETICAL ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON AN AVALANCHE TRANSISTOR-BASED MARX GENERATOR
the result may be different. For example, if the number of
Marx stages decrease, the total output impedance of the
generator will also decrease, i.e., the curve of source output
impedance in Fig. 10 will move down. Consequently, the
intersection with the maximum output peak power may
appear at a load resistance further smaller than 50 .
IV. C ONCLUSION
A theoretical and experimental study on a high-voltage
nanosecond Marx generator based on avalanche transistors
was described in this paper. The detailed operating process of
an avalanche transistor-based Marx circuit was introduced by
an experiment. It was concluded that the working characteris-
tics of avalanche transistors can be approximately represented
by three constant resistances, the first two transistors (stages)
turn ON at the earliest but with the lowest speeds and they
dominantly determine the output delay and jitter, the following
transistors (stages) are then triggered by overvoltage in
sequence and they have no effect on the rise time of the
pulse, and the switching asynchrony of transistors (stages)
can be effectively restrained by enlarging block resistances.
A design example was utilized to design the Marx circuit
satisfying specific output parameters. It is necessary to deter-
mine the number of Marx stages, main capacitance, charging
resistance, and power dissipation. It is also crucial to undertake
optimizations (including the output impedance matching) for
the circuit to obtain preferred output performances. The mica
capacitor is the best performing capacitor because of its low
dielectric losses. The final output parameters are a 2.5-kV
amplitude, 6.0-ns width, 10-kHz repetitive frequency and
<100-ps jitter, and ∼125-kW maximum peak power on a
roughly matched 50- load. The pulse amplitude could be
adjusted from 1.5 to 2.5 kV by adjusting the supply voltage
from 180 to 300 V; the pulse width could be broadened by
enlarging the main capacitances or the load resistance, which
would be safer.
The conclusions as well as the complete design process
may provide a reference to the similar methods of generating
high-voltage nanosecond pulses using semiconductor switch-
ing devices. Futhermore, the repetitive frequency and output
amplitude requirements in this example made the transistors
work almost beyond their thermal limits. It is obvious that the
transistors would bear lighter burden if reducing the repetitive
frequency, pulse width, and pulse amplitude or increasing the
load resistance, as stated at the end of Section III-B. Avalanche
transistors are also available to be fabricated in parallel for
higher current only if providing adjustable biasing to make
the simultaneous second breakdown of the transistor array,
but it is not the point of this paper. To further improve the
output voltage, several transistors may be stacked in series in
each stage of the Marx bank, but with the price of higher
supply voltage. And it has to be done to guarantee the same
number of transistors in each stage and fabricate a consistent
resistor (500 k–5 M) parallel with the collector–emitter
branch of each transistor to equally distribute the supply
voltage. In our laboratory, a 6 × 10 Marx circuit (10-stage and
six cascaded transistors in each stage) using FMMT417 had
been developed and it could stably produce pulses with about
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−8.0-kV amplitude and 6.0-ns rise time on a 50- resistive
load for the use of triggering a two-stage trigatron
switch-based Marx generator.
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Authors’ photographs and biographies not available at the time of publication.