PULSE - A Directed Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon



The Marx Generator





The concept of a Marx Generator is as follows:

After a set of capacitors is fully charged to a voltage V, one is discharged (usually by the use of a trigatron) on to the opposite side of the circuit. This induces a voltage swing of V (apparent) to the next capacitor/sparkgap combination in line, which then also fires (as 2V is greater than the gap's breakdown voltage). This then induces a voltage swing of 2V(apparent) to the next cap/gap combo, which also fires, adding its V, making it 3V. This continues for as many capacitors as you have.

PULSE has an 8-stage Marx Generator as its power supply. The generator is driven by a high voltage flyback tranformer system. See the schematics below:



A four-stage Marx in complete system form:

A thumbnail of the full Marx Generator.


Same Marx Generator, however, the first shows the charging state, and the second shows the discharging state:

A thumbnail of the charging Marx Generator. A thumbnail of the discharging Marx Generator.


PULSE's 8-stage Marx Generator in both a nice schematic and a hand-drawn one:

A thumbnail of the PULSE Marx Generator (schematic). A thumbnail of the PULSE Marx Generator (drawn).



All four-part Marx images were taken from High Voltage - Measurement, Testing, and Design by TJ Gallagher and AJ Pearmain. Great book. I highly recommend it for any voltheads.