Development of pulse power supply system based on Marx generator for the arc ion source of the VEST NBI

Abstract A short-pulse and high power supply system is developed for the pulse arc ion source of the neutral beam injector (NBI) of the Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (VEST). The NBI system, with the maximum ion beam power of 20 keV, 0.8 MW and pulse length of 10 ms, was designed for the auxiliary plasma heating and current drive source. However, the beam injection energy needs to be lower than 20 keV under the initial target plasma parameters of VEST due to the beam-plasma coupling efficiency. For this reason, modulation of the beam energy in pulse duration is important to increase efficiency of the VEST NBI system. To satisfy these requirements, a pulse power system based on Marx generator is developed by utilizing high-energy capacitors and a solid-state switching system for the ion beam extraction and arc power supply. In addition, a battery-based power supply system is developed for the filament heating power supply which is highly cost-effective. In this paper, circuit structure and features of the power supply system of the ion source for the VEST NBI is described and the results of the discharges test are presented.