An inductive scheme of power conditioning at mega-Ampere currents

Abstract

This work describes an inductive energy storage scheme intended for power multiplication at mega-Ampere currents. The key power multiplication element of the scheme is an opening switch generating the voltage of inductive origin. The switch represents an additional volume with magnetically accelerated solid-state or plasma conductor between the generator and the load. Motion of the conductor increases the inductance of the volume. A sufficiently fast increase of this inductance at the end of magnetic energy storage time ensures power multiplication. A critical requirement for the accelerated conductor is the possibility of temporal profiling of the inductance increase. A proof-of-principle experiment at GIT12 shows that such profiling is possible. We suggest a simple analysis of the scheme efficiency and illustrate this analysis for a multi-mega-Ampere class generator. The scheme is alternative to existing inductive energy storage technologies for pulsed-power conditioning at high currents.