The COBRA accelerator pulsed-power driver for Cornell/Sandia ICF research

Abstract

This paper introduces and describes the new Cornell Beam Research Accelerator, COBRA, the result of a three and one-half year collaboration. The flexible 4 to 5-MV, 100 to 250-kA, 46-ns pulse width accelerator is based on a four-cavity inductive voltage adder (IVA) design. In addition to being a mix of new and existing components, COBRA is unique in the sense that each cavity is driven by a single pulse forming line, and the IVA output polarity may be reversed by rotating the cavities 180/spl deg/ about their vertical axis. Our tests with negative high voltage on the inner MITL stalk indicate that the vacuum power flow has established reasonable azimuthal symmetry within about 2 ns (or 0.6 m) after the cavity output gap. Preliminary results with the accelerator, single cavity, and MITL are presented along with the design details and circuit model predictions.