Energy compression by means of a switched mode topology of transmission lines

Abstract

A conceptual approach for pulsed power generation is described in this paper. This approach is based on the fact that the time of appearance of a voltage pulse traveling on a channel is directly proportional to the electrical length of the channel. Thus, if power pulses are fed into the inputs of a group of transmission lines sequentially, they may reach the end points simultaneously, if certain measures are taken. The first pulse should be applied to the input terminals of the longest transmission line, the second to the next, shorter transmission line and so on, the last pulse in the cycle is fed into the shortest transmission line. If the system is composed of m transmission line segments, the difference in the electrical length from line to line should be T/m, where T denotes the period of the cycle. The output peak power will be m times higher than the input peak power, due to either a rise in voltage, in current, or a combination of both. The current/voltage magnification would be defined by the choice of a suitable connection mode at the end points. The main advantages of the transmission line based topology are: (a) the switching elements the system consists of need to withstand a much lower power than the power experienced by the load, and (b) the system can operate either at extremely high frequencies or with very short rise and decay times of rectangular pulses.