Modeling of an inductive adder kicker pulser for a proton radiography system

An all solid-state prototype kicker pulser for a proton radiography system has been designed and fabricated at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Multiple solid state modulators stacked in an inductive-adder configuration are utilized in this kicker pulser design. Each modulator is comprised of multiple metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) which quickly switch the energy storage capacitors across magnetic induction cores. Voltage from each modulator is inductively added by a voltage summing stalk. To minimize losses, Metglas is used as the core material. A lumped element circuit model of the inductive adder has been developed to predict the performance of the pulser. The modeling results will be compared with experimental data.