Effect of Stray Capacitance on Marx Generator

Output Voltage
Sabyasachi Mitra, Vishnu Sharma, Senthil Kalyandrum, Romesh Chandra, Sandeep Singh,
Rakhee Menon, Ankur Patel, Amitava Roy, Archana Sharma
Accelerator and Power Pulse Division,
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Mumbai, India

Krishna Kanakgiri, Mayank Mishra

Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute,
Mumbai, India

ABSTRACT
In this paper effect of stray capacitance on output voltage of the Marx Generator is studied. Stray capacitances
formed between high voltage metallic structures of Marx generator and its ground enclosure play a critical role in
determining the voltage and rise time of the output pulse. With increase in enclosure diameter erected leakage
inductance increases and stray capacitance reduces, with decrease and vice versa. Eventually in both the cases output
voltage reduces and rise time increases. This effect is predominant in fast rising low energy MARX generators having
low erected capacitances. In this paper effort has been made to quantify these effects. Simulations were carried out for
different enclosure structures to find out their effect on output voltage and rise time with a fixed load. It was observed
that conical enclosure helps in mitigating this problem in MARX generator. Simulations were also carried out to
optimize the flaring angle of the conical enclosure to obtain maximum output voltage. Simulated results are
experimentally validated using a 22 stage 450 kV MARX generator. Details of the analysis, simulations and experimental
results are narrated thoroughly in this paper.

Index Terms— Marx Generator; Stray Capacitance; Rise Time; Stray Inductance.

Manuscript received on X Month, 2005, in final form XX Month, 2005.

 1. INTRODUCTION
Marx Generators are mostly used in pulsed power
application such as flash X-Ray, Ultra Wide Band generation L
for impulse voltage generation. Marx generator consists of N-
stage capacitors which are charged in parallel and discharge in Z
series. Marx Circuit is basically a capacitive energy storage
circuit which is charged to a particular voltage level and
discharges quickly to the load, transferring all its stored energy
to the load in very short amount of time. The simple circuit of
a Marx generator is as shown in figure-1. The theoretical value
of the output voltage obtained for N-Stage Marx Generator
with charging voltage equals to V is N×V. But in practical Figure-2 Equivalent Circuit of Marx Generator at the time of
cases the output voltage obtained is less than N×V. This is due Erection
to the presence of stray capacitance and leakage inductance. The impedance of the system is given by equation
Not only the output voltage gets reduced but the rise time also
increases. Z0 = (L/C)1/2 (1)
In this paper, the effects of stray capacitance and If the load impedance Z equals to Z0 then the response is
inductance which are related to the geometry of the enclosure under-damp, whereas the load impedance with 2Z 0 then the
of the Marx Generator have been studied. Efforts have been response obtain is critically damped [2].
made to quantify these effects by using conical structure as the
enclosure for Marx Generator. These effects have been The specifications required for Marx Generator are output
observed in simulation of 22 stages 450kV Marx Generator voltage (V), load impedance (Z) and Energy of the pulse (E).
and are validated experimentally. These specifications help in calculating the number of stages
of a Marx Generator, capacitance required in each stage and
leakage inductance of each stage. The analysis for the design
e
tag is also given in [1], which shows equation for peak output
Vol voltage, rise time and full wave at half maximum(FWHM) and
ing
arg are given by:
Vpeak = 0.736×V (2)
Ch

Rise time = (L×C)1/2 (3)

1/2
FWHM = 2.45 × (L×C) (4)
From equation 2, 3 and 4 number of stages for Marx, per
stage capacitance and per stage inductance can be calculated.
B. Formation of Stray capacitor
e
tag Stray capacitance is formed between high voltage metallic
Vol
ing structures of Marx generator and its ground enclosure, and
arg between the spark-gaps. They play a critical role in successive
Ch
breakdown of the spark-gap and determining the voltage and
rise time of the output pulse of Marx Generator. For achieving
successive breakdown of spark-gap the stray capacitance
should be larger than capacitance formed between spark-gap.
But a very large value of stray capacitance can cause reduction
in output voltage pulse. Therefore to avoid this reduction we
tried to keep this capacitance to a low value which could be
achieved by increasing the diameter of the enclosure. Increase
Figure-1 Charging and Discharging Circuit of Marx Generator in diameter of the enclosure not only causes reduction of stray
I. THEORY OF MARX GENERATOR capacitance but increases leakage inductance of the Marx
A. Circuit Parameters circuit there by increasing the rise time of the output pulse.
This is also given in literature [4], which shows that if the
The basic circuit of the Marx Generator is as shown in the angle of conical enclosure is increased then stray capacitance
Figure-2. and leakage inductance act against each other.
The circuit shows the capacitor C which is equivalent
capacitor of Marx Generator when erected, inductance L II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
which is equivalent inductance of Marx Generator and Z the A 22 stage Marx Generator with a conical enclosure was
load impedance. constructed. A conical enclosure helps in minimizing the stray
capacitance thereby increasing the output voltage. A Ceramic
material capacitor was selected as it has a high dielectric (a)
strength. Each stage of Marx Generator was constructed with Figure-3 (a) First two stages of Marx Generator
15 capacitors connected in parallel, two charging resistors, one (Yellow-Capacitor, Blue- Charging and ground resistor)
spark gap switch and Perspex disc which provide insulation
Input Voltage Sources
between ground point of one stage and high voltage point of
next stage.
Marx Generator was designed in such a manner that
enough clearance was present between high voltage point and
ground point. The gap between the spark-gap switch was
around 4-5 cm. Proper value of the gap capacitance and stray
capacitance were taken into consideration for erection of Marx
Generator and it was enclosed in a SS cylinder of 20 cm
bottom radius, 32 cm top radius and an axial length of ~115
(b)
cm. The inductance of Marx Generator is about 30 nH per
Figure-3(b) 22stage Marx Generator on CST Microwave Studio
stage for a load resistance of 100 Ω.
A. Simulation
The 22 stage Marx generator is simulated with help CST
Microwave Studio software. There are 15 capacitors
connected in parallel to form a single stage of Marx each
having a capacitance of 400 pF and rated for 50 kV charging
voltage. Therefore each stage of Marx Generator has 6 nF
capacitance. Charging voltage was set to 50kV. The enclosure
is chosen to be conical structure whose bottom radius is set to
20 cm and top radius is set to (20+a) cm, where ‘a’ is varied
from 0 to 12 cm in which 5 linear samples were taken. At a=0
the enclosure is cylindrical and gradually its flaring angle is
Figure-4 Marx Generator on CST Microwave Studio with
increased by increasing the value of ‘a’. The output voltage enclosure as cylinder (a = 0cm).
was seen across a resistive load of 100Ω. The result for each
sample is tabulated in Table-1

Table-1 Result of Simulation taken for each sample

a (Top radius=(20+a) cm) ~Output Voltage(kV)
0 -250
3 -400
6 -440
9 -450
12 -454

It can be seen that from Table-1, that when the top radius
Figure-5 Marx Generator on CST Microwave Studio with conical
and bottom radius are equal the enclosure is like a cylindrical enclosure (a = 12cm).
enclosure and the simulated output voltage is~250kV and as
the top radius increases the output voltage increases. Figure-6 shows the output waveform of the Marx
Maximum output voltage of 454kV is found when the top Generator seen across the load, which is also tabulated in
radius is 12cm. Table-1
Figure 3, 4 and 5 shows the geometry of the Marx
Generator defined in CST Microwave Studio.

Resistances Capacitors
High Voltage Plate

Ground Plate Perspex Disc

Spark-Gap
 Figure-6 – Simulated Output Waveform of Marx Generator on
CST Microwave Studio with Top Radius from 20 to 32cm (5
Samples) with load resistance of 100Ω

B. Experiment
The 22 stages are assembled by stacking one over the
other vertically. Each stage consist of 15 number of Ceramic
based capacitor of 400 pF rated 50 kV, one charging and one
ground resistor each of value 2 kΩ which are wire wound
Nichrome resistor having corona ring at the end of the
connections and one spark-gap switch. The capacitor of each Figure-7 22-StageMarx Generator with Conical Enclosure
stage is mounted on Perspex disc. The whole stack was then
enclosed in a stainless steel vessel of cylindrical and conical
structure which act as a return path while erection of the Marx
generator. Both the side of these two enclosures was sealed
air-tight by O-rings. The Marx system is pressurized with v)
Nitrogen gas at 3-3.5 kg/cm 2. Each Stage of the Marx /di
generator is charged to 40 kV voltage. The figure 7 shows the kV
whole system enclosed in a conical structure enclosure. No (50
external triggering system was employed in this system and; e
the system was erected on self-trigger phenomena. The output tag
voltage was measured across a dummy load of 100Ω on Vol
oscilloscope which is shown in figure 8 and 9 for cylindrical
and conical enclosure respectively.
From the output wave form shown in Figure 8 and 9 we Time (50nS/div)
can see that the maximum output voltage obtain for cylindrical Figure-8 Measured Output Voltage Waveform of the 22-Stage Marx
Generator with Cylindrical Enclosure.
enclosure is 250kV and that for conical enclosure is 450kV, )
we could also note that with change in enclosure the rise time iv
of the output voltage also increased from 30 ns to 50 ns for /d
cylindrical and conical enclosure respectively which also V
shows there is a change in the inductance of the circuit. k
0
2
(1
ge
ta
ol
V

Time 100ns/div
Figure-9- Measured Output Voltage Waveform (Pink) of the 22-Stage
Marx Generator with Conical Enclosure
 2. Conclusion
A CST simulation and experiment on
a 22 stage Marx Generator was carried
Sabyasachi Mitra received the B.E degree in
out to find the effect of stray capacitance electrical engineering from Bengal Engineering
on the Marx generator’s output voltage College (Deemed University), West Bengal, India, in
and it was found that as the enclosure of 2002 and the M.Tech. Degree in Power Electronics,
the Marx generator was changed from Electrical Machines and Drives from the Indian
cylindrical to conical structure the Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, in 2005.
output voltage of the Marx generator He was first introduced to pulse-power technology
through the Orientation Course for DAE Graduate
was increased. In simulation we observed that the maximum Fellows-2005 Program, Training School, Bhabha
output voltage was ~250kV with ~40nS rise time and for the Atomic Research Centre BARC), Mumbai, India. Since
same enclosure structure maximum output voltage obtain then, he has been interested in pulsed-power technology,
experimentally was ~220kV with ~30nS. When the enclosure electron-beam generation, and its further applications. He is
was changed to conical structure the maximum output currently a Scientific Officer (F) with BARC.
voltages obtained were found to be ~454kV with ~45nS rise Vishnu Sharma received the B.E.
time and ~460kV with ~50nS rise time for simulation and degree in electrical engineering from the
experiment respectively. This shows that as the enclosure College of Technology and Engineering of
clearance from high voltage point has increased the stray Udaipur, Udaipur, India, in 2002 and the
capacitance of the Marx generator decreases and thus causes M.Tech. Degree in Power Electronics and
an increase in the output voltage. Power Systems from Indian Institute of
Technology, Mumbai, India, in 2006.
He was first introduced to pulse-power
III. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT technology
Authors are grateful to Shri R. K. Rajawat, Associate through the Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre (BARC) training school OCDF-06
Director, Beam Technology Group and Head, Accelerator and program in 2006. Since then, he has been working on pulsed
Pulse Power Division, BARC, Mumbai for providing the power science and technology at BARC, Mumbai, India, and is
support and encouragement of this work. Authors are also currently a Scientific Officer (E).
thankful to Professor H. A. Mangalvedekar, VJTI, Mumbai for
his valuable interaction of these activities. Senthil Kumar received the B.E. degree
in electrical and electronics engineering
from Annamalai University,
Annamalainagar, India, in 1999.
References He was with BARC through NFC Training
[1] T.Prabhan, A. Shyam, R. Shukla, p Banerjee, S Sharma, P Deb, R School,
Verma, R Kumar, R Das, B Das & B Adhikary “Develoment of 2.4nS, Hyderabad, through OCES-05 program in
300kV, ~500MW compact co-axial Marx Generator”Indian Journal of 2006.
Pure and Applied Physics Vol. 49 January 2011, pp.64-72
Since then, he has been working in
[2] Archana Sharma, V. Sharma, D. D. P. Kumar, S. Mitra, Senthil.K, K. V. pulsed power
Nagesh, D. P. Chakravarthy, and A. K. Ray “Experimental Results on technology, magnetic compression,
Design Aspects of a Compact Repetitive Marx Generator" Accelerator & electron beam
Pulse Power Div., Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, generation, and its further applications. Currently, he is
Maharashtra, India, Pulsed Power Conference, 2009. PPC '09. IEEE. working as a Scientific Officer (E) with BARC, Mumbai, India.
[3] J. Biela, D. Bortis and J.W. Kolar “Modeling of Pulse Transformers with
Parallel- and Non-Parallel-Plate Windings for Power Modulators” IEEE Romesh Chandra received his B.Sc. and
Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 14 2007, Pages M.Sc. degree from University of
1016-1024. Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India in 2009
[4] D. Habibinia and M. R. Feyzi “Optimal Winding Design of a Pulse and 2011 respectively. He joined Bhabha
Transformer Considering Parasitic Capacitance Effect to Reach Best Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai in
Rise Time and Overshoot” IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and 2012. Currently he is working as a
Electrical Insulation Vol. 21, No. 3; June 2014. Scientific Officer D in Accelerator & Pulse
[5] Archana Sharma, Senthil Kumar, Sabyasachi Mitra, Vishnu Sharma, Power Division. His research interests are
Ankur Patel, Amitava Roy, Rakhee Menon, K. V. Nagesh, and D. P. in high power microwave and intense
Chakravarthy “Development and Characterization of Repetitive 1-kJ relativistic electron beam.
Marx-Generator-Driven Reflex Triode System for High-Power
Microwave Generation” IEEE Transactions on Palsma Science Vol. 39,
No. 5; May 2011.
[6] Jian Qiu, Kefu Liu, and Liuxia Li “Analysis on Stray Parameters in A Sandeep Kumar Singh received the
Solid-State Marx Pulsed” Fudan University, Institute for Electric Light B.Tech. degree in electronics from
Sources, Shanghai, 200433, China, Power Modulator and High Voltage Harcourt Butler Technological Institute,
Conference (IPMHVC), 2012 IEEE International. Kanpur, India, in 2004.
[7] Archana Sharma S. Mitra, Senthil K. Vishnu Sharma, Sandeep Singh, He joined the OCES 48th batch Training
S.V. Tewri, AND K.C. Mittal “Energy balance aspect in KALI-30 GW School, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
high-voltage pulsepower source” Laser and Particle Beams (2014), 32, (BARC), Mumbai, India, in 2004.
531–535 In September 2005, he joined
the Accelerator and Pulse Power
Division, BARC, where he is
currently a Scientific Officer (E).
His research interests include HPM diagnostics and ultra
wideband sources.

Mayank Mishra received his B.E Degree from Mumbai

Rakhee Menon received the M.Sc. University in Electrical Engineering. Currently, He is doing
degree (with M.Tech from Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, Mumbai,
physics honors) from the University of India in Power System Engineering and doing project work in,
Kerala, APPD, BARC, Mumbai. His current area of interest is
Kerala, India, in 2003. Electromagnetics, High Voltage and Power Systems.
In 2006, she was with the Orientation
Course for Engineering Graduates and
Science Post-Graduates- 2005 Program,
Training School, Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre (BARC), Mumbai, India. She is
currently a Scientific Officer (E) with BARC. Her
research interests include intense electron beams, Flash X-
ray, and high-power microwave generation.

Ankur Patel received the B.E. degree in electronics and communication from
the GCET, V.V.nager, Gujarat, India, and the M.Tech. degree in engineering
Physics in HBNI, Mumbai, India, in 2009. He has been working in high
voltage power supply and repetitive pulsed power system in the Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre (BARC). Since then, he has been working on pulsed
power science and technology at BARC, Mumbai, India, and is currently a
Scientific Officer (E).

Dr. Amitava Roy received the B.Sc.

degree (physics
honors) from North Bengal University,
West Bengal, India, in 1995 and the M.Sc.
degree in physics from Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi, India, in 1997. He
graduated from the Training School,
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC),
Mumbai, India, in 1998, He has completed
his Ph.D. degree at the Homi Bhabha
National Institute on intense relativistic electron beam
generation and applications.

Dr. Archana Sharma received the B.E

degree in electrical engineering from
Regional Engineering College, Bhopal,
India, in 1987 and the M.Sc. (Eng.) and
Ph.D. degrees from the Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore, India, in 1994 and
2003, respectively.
In 1987, she joined Bhabha Atomic
Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, India, as
a Scientific Officer. She is currently a
Senior Scientific Officer with the
Accelerator and Pulse Power Division, BARC. Her specialization
is in the design and development of single-shot and repetitive
pulsed electron-beam generators based on Marx generators
and linear induction accelerators. Her research interests also
include compact pulsed-power systems for high-power
microwave, Flash X-ray, and industrial applications.

Krishna Kanakgiri completed his

B.Engg and M.Tech in Electrical
Engineering from University of Mumbai in
the year 2007 and 2009 respectively.
Currently he is working as an assistant
professor in Electrical Engineering
Department of Veermata Jijabai
Technological Institute, India. He is also
currently pursuing PhD from Indian
Institute of Technology, Bombay. His
areas of interest are Electromagnetics and Power Systems.