Reply To: Great News!

[asymmetric_implosion]

If you charge an inductor with the necessary energy (~100 kJ) at the drive current (~2MA) you need 50 nH. That is much less than I thought. I was thinking something like 1 uH. This adds to my argument not to do math in my head. It would be difficult to couple a 1 uH load to the <100 nH pinch but 50 nH has some hope. This is one problem with plasma opening switches. You would generate a high voltage spike at switch opening well in excess of the necessary drive voltage of ~40 kV. You might be saved by the fact that the gas will breakdown and dissipate the voltage before the switch is overwhelmed. Still at 100 kV switch is required and if it's an opening switch you are doubly screwed because it has to stay closed before suddenly opening. Solid state is the only answer. Diamond will not work because you cannot keep it on. SiC has some hope but a 100 kV switch is a challenge. Turn off is far worse than turn on. Another question is how to charge the inductor with 2 MA to start with. You would still require a cap bank because I don't know of a slow pulse 2 MA source to charge the inductor. I guess a fly wheel could do it for low rep rate operation like they used to do on Tokameks. I guess you could charge many units in parallel but you wouldn't want to see the source inductance get too low because you couldn't match to the load.