Design of a driver for the cygnus x-ray source

© 2002 IEEE. Cygnus is the prototype of a radiographic x-ray source leveraging existing hardware and designs to drive a rodpinch diode at 2.25 MV. This high-resolution x-ray source is being developed to support the Sub-Critical Experiments Program (SCE) at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), and as such employs a modular technology that is scaleable to higher voltages and can be readily deployed underground. The diode is driven by three Induction Voltage Adder (IVA) cells from the Sandia SABRE [1] accelerator, threaded by a positive polarity vacuum coax that extends 2 meters to the diode and is designed to operate below electron emission on the anodized outer electrode. The ∼40 ohm diode impedance requires a 40/32or ∼4.5 ohm source to drive the three IVA cavities in parallel; a convenient impedance for a single water coax. The water coax is designed to function as a two-step impedance transformer as well as a long, passive water cable, accommodating several bends along its length. The latter feature allows independent positioning of the pulsed power driver, IVA and diode x-ray source. The long water coax is driven by a PFL originally developed for Sandia's Radiographic Integrated Test Stand (RITS) [2] and a lowinductance commercial Marx charges the single PFL. The accelerator design is a result of a cooperative effort by Titan-PSI and Maxwell (now collectively Titan-PSD) SNLA, LANL, NRL, and Bechtel-Nevada.