Enabling Technologies for Deployable, High Repetition Rate Directed Energy and Pulsed Power Systems

Pulsed power technology was initially developed to provide a low cost method for x-ray imaging of nuclear detonations. The United Kingdom's Atomic Weapons Research Establishment used the time dependence of electrical breakdown to produce pulsed, energetic x-rays instead of the particle accelerator which it could not afford. Over the next decades, the techniques and components were developed largely by groups in the UK, USA and USSR and predominantly used for the simulators for nuclear testing. These simulators were physically large and operated in single pulse mode. In the late 1990s, applications began to emerge for both mobile and repetitively operated systems. The component developed for single pulse systems were co-opted and used in repetitive systems with varying degrees of success. Compact, portable and high pulse repetition rate (PRR) systems were proposed typically for an emerging class of nonlethal military weapons now known as Directed Energy Weapons (DEW). Simultaneously, new commercial applications were investigated where repetition rates were important. Industrial and commercial applications include material modification, laser ablation, protection of the environment, decontamination technologies, and biological and medical developments. These applications tend to be a modest voltage (10kV) and current (10A) levels. New wide-bandgap semiconductor switches are fueling the developments because of their compact size, lightweight, high repetition-rate, low-cost, and high efficiency. A number of companies exist to provide pulsers for these commercial applications. Military applications tend to have specialized requirements such as very high voltages (tilde 1 MV) and/or high currents (tilde 25kA).