A NEW ALGORITHM FOR THE DESIGN OF MAGNETIC PULSE COMPRESSORS

An algorithm is presented for the design of multistage Magnetic Pulse Compressors (MPC) used in pulsed lasers. The design procedure comprises two parts. First, given the overall compression ratio specification and the saturated inductance of the last stage, we determine the number of stages, the compression ratio per stage and the hold-off time of each stage. In the second part of the design procedure, the magnetic switch for each stage is designed, using given magnetic cores (available shelf items). The output of the procedure is a set of possible solutions (designs), i.e. a set of doublets M, N (M - number of cores, N - number of windings), all of which satisfy the specifications. For each design, a number of parameters are calculated the magnetic field H, actual saturated inductance, core losses, copper losses, etc., which can be jointly used as criteria for selecting a specific design. The novel features of the proposed design procedure include: use of a more exact formula for inductance, taking into account the spacing between the windings and the core (which significantly influences the inductance), a more exact formula for estimating the minimum core volume required, checking how deeply in saturation the core is driven, modular design of the different stages, i.e. one stage may be designed separately, possibly using a different core geometry.