The advanced helical generator

A high explosive pulsed power generator called the advanced helical generator (AHG) has been designed, built, and successfully tested. The AHG incorporates design principles of voltage and current management to obtain a high current and energy gain. Its design was facilitated by the use of modern modeling tools as well as high precision manufacture. The result was a first-shot success. The AHG delivered 16 MA of current and 11 MJ of energy to a quasistatic 80 nH inductive load. A current gain of 160 times was obtained with a peak exponential rise time of 20 μs. We will describe in detail the design and testing of the AHG.