MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

RADIATION LABORATORY SERIES

LOUIS N. RIDENOUR, Edi!m-in-Chiej

PULSE GENERATORS
 bfA88ACHUfJETT8 INi3TITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

RADIATION LABORATORY SERIES

Board of Editors
hum N. RIDENOUB, Editor-in-Chief
GEOBGEB. COLLINS, Deputy Editor-in-Chief

BRITTON CHANCE, S. A. GOUDSMIT, R. G. HESS, HUBEBT M. JAMES, JULIAN K. KNIPP,

JAMES L. LAWSON, LEON B. LINFOSD, C.iROL G. MONTOOHEBY, C. NEWTON, ALBERT
M. STONE, LOUIS A. TUBNEB, GEORGEE, VALLEY, JII., HEItBEBT H. WHEATON

1. RADAIi SYSTEM ENQ1NEEBIN*~2denOUr

2. RADAB AIOS TCI NAVlt3ATION—HU21
3. RADAB BEACONB-ROZIefk!
4. Lo&iN-Pierce, McKenzie, and Woodward
5. PULSE GENEBATOSS-olaSOe and Lelmcqz
6. MICaOWAVE MAGNETRONS-COzlinS
7. KLYSTRONS ANO MICROWAVE TRIODES—HUmi~tOn, Knipp, and Kuper
8. PRINCIPLES OF MICBOWAVE CIRculTs—MontgotnerV, llicke, and PurceU
9. MICBOWAVE TRANSMISSION CmculTs-Ragan
10. WAVEGUIDE HANDBOOK-MUnXtV2tz
11. TECHNIQUE OF MICSOWAVE MEASUREMENTS—MOn@ Ornery
12. MICKOWAVS ANTENNA THEORY AND DES1~N—Si2Ver
13. PROPAGATION OF SHOBT R.\DIO WAvEs-Kerr
14. MICROWAVE lluFLExEss-8mul11n and Montgomery
15. CBYSTAL RECTIFIERS—TOrre~ and Whitmer
16. MICBOWAVE MIxERs—Pound
Ii’. COMPONENTS HANDDooK—Blackburn
18. VACUUM TUBE hlFLIIU1lRS-vUlk?~ and WaUman
19. WAVEFORhfS-ChanCe, Hughes, Mach’ichol, Savre, and Williams
20. ELECTRONIC TIME ME.UNJREMENTS—C7hUnCe,Htdsizer, MocNichol,
and Williams
21. ELECTRONIC iNSTRUMENTS—&eenWOOd, Holdam, and .JfacRae
22. CATHODE RAY TUBE DIsFLAYs—soUer, Starr, and Valle~
23. MICROWAVE RECEIVERS—V(M2 Voorhis
24. THBESHOLD smNALs-Lawson and Uhlenbeck
25. THEORY OF sERvolIEcH.\NIsMs-James, Nichols, and Phillips
26. RADAS SCANNEBS ANO RADOMES-Cadu, Karelitz, and Turner
27. COMPUTING MECHANISbiS AND LINKAGEs—Svoboda
28. lNDEX—Henne~
 PULSE GENERATORS

Edited hy

G. N’. GLASOE
~ROF~SSOR
OF PHYSICS, RENssEL.i EH POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

J. V. LEBACQZ
.4SSIST.ANT PROFESSOR OF ELECTRICAL Eh~~~NEE~lN~
THE JOIINS HOPKIINS IJA-IIERSITY

OFFICE OF s(.:IEN’I’l FIC RESE.\RCH ANI) DEVELOPM13NT

N .\T1ON AL DEFENSE IiES13ARCH COMMITTEE

FIRST ~DITIO\

J~I~JI’ FOIZK .l. YD LO.VDON

ilf(rG1/.iTfr-f IILL BOOI{ G’031PAATY, I.WC.

194s

,4
 PL”LSE GENER.4TORS

COPI-RIGHT, 1948, BY THE

llc[~R.iIv-HILI,i300K (7(JMP.-LNY,INC.

PRI>-TE1) IX THE l-XI,TEIIST.\TF;

S OF .\MERIC.i

THE MAPLE PRESS COMPANY, YORK, PA.

 PULSE GENERATORS

EDITORIAL. STAFF

GEORGE B. COLLINS

G. NORRIS GLASOE

JEAN V. LEBACQZ

HOWARD D. DOOLITTLE

BARBARA DWIGHT

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS

W. H. BOSTICK ~. S. JERREMS

J. R. DILLINGER L. G. KERSTA

P. C. EDWARDS H. H. KOSKI

O. T. FUNDINGSLAND J. V. LERACQZ
.\. K. J. GERMESHAUSEN R. S. STANTON
w

P. R. GILLETTE H. J. WHITE

G. N. GLASOE
 Forewrd

HE tremendous research an(l dcwelopmcnt effort ttlat \v(,r)t, i r]f (~ 1,111.

T development of raclar ancl relatecl during N’fJrl~l \\”:Lr I I
techniques
resulted not only in hundreds of radar sets for military (aml s(J[n(: f’(Jr
possible peacetime) use but also in a great body of inf~)rmuti(m urlfl n{w
techniques in the electronics and high-frequency ficlrls. lJCCWM t1,is
basic material may be of great value to science and engineering, it s{:l.rn~,l
most important to publish it as soon as security permitted.
The Radiation Laboratory of MIT, which operated under t}w su lx.r-
vision of the National Defense Research Committee, undm-tof)k t}w gr~,:lt,
task of preparing these volumes. The work described }wrrin, tL(Jtrl,v(r,is
the collective result of work done at many laboratories, ,Irmy, X uvy,
university, and industrial, both in this country and in England, ( ‘anwlu,
and other Dominions.
The Radiation Laboratory, once its proposals were approved and
finances provided by the Office of Scientific Research and Development,
chose Louis N. Ridenour as Editor-in-Chief to lead and direct the entire
project. An editorial staff was then selected of those best qualified for
this type of task. Finally the authors for the various volumes or chapters
or sections were chosen from among those experts who ~~ere intimately
familiar with the various fields, and who were able and willing to \vritc
the summaries of them. This entire staff agreed to remain at ~vork at
MIT for six months or more after the work of the Radiation Laboratory
was complete. These volumes stand as a monument to this group.
These volumes serve as a memorial to the unnamed hundreds am]
thousands of other scientists, engineers, and others who actually carried
on the research, development, and engineering work the results of which
are herein described. There were so many involved in this work and they
worked so closely together even tbough often in wide] y separated labora-
tories that it is impossible to name or even to know those ~vho contributed
to a particular idea or development. Only certain ones who \vrote reports
or articles have even been mentioned. But to all those who contributed
in any way to this great cooperative development enterprise, both in this
country and in England, these volumes are dedicated.

L. A. DUBRIDGE.
vii
 Preface

W HEN the
order
the important
Radiation
to provide
technical
the
Laboratory
armed
problems
services
facing
was organized
with
this group
in the
microwave
was
fall

that
radar,
of 1940 in

of devising
one of

equipment capable of delivering high-power pulses to the newly developed

cavity-magnetron oscillator. To be sure, some techniques for generating
electrical pulses were available at this time. However, the special
characteristics of these magnetrons and the requirements imposed by the
operation of a microwave-radar system (high pulse power, short pulse
duration, and high recurrence frequency) made it evident that new
techniques had to be developed.
During the existence of the Radiation Laboratory the group assigned
to the problem of pulse generation grew from a nucleus of about five peo-
ple to an organization of more than ten times this number. The coordi-
nated efforts of this group extended the development of pulse generators
considerably beyond the original requirement of 100-kw pulses with a
duration of 1 psec and a recurrence frequency of 1000 pps. The develop-
ment extended to both higher and lower powers, longer and shorter
pulses, and lower and higher recurrence frequencies. Besides the
improvement of existing techniques, it was necessary to devise entirely
new methods and to design new components to provide satisfactory pulse
generators for radar applications. The use of a lumped-constant trans-
mission line (line-simulating network) to generate pulses of specific pulse
duration and shape was carried to a high state of development. As a
result of work both on transformers that could be used for short pulses
and high pukw powers and on new switching devices, highly efficient and
flexible pulse generators using line-simulating networks were available
at the end of the war. Concurrent with the work at the Radiation
Laboratory, a large amount of work was done at similar laboratories in
Great Britain, Canada, and Australia, and at many commercial labora-
tories in this country and abroad.
The purpose of this volume is to present the developments in the
techniques of pulse generation that have resulted from thk work. These
techniques are by no means limited to radar applications: they may be
used with loads of almost any conceivable type, and should therefore be
applicable to many problems in physics and engineering. The discussion
of pulse-generator design and operation is divided into three principal
parts. Part I is concerned with hard-tube pulsers, which are Class C
ix
x PREFACE

amphfiers specifically desigued for the production of pulses of short

duration and high power; Part II presents the characteristics of the
line-type pulser, which utilizes the line-simulating networks; Part III
considers thedesign and characteristiccs of pulse transformers. Through-
out this volume both the theoretical and the practical aspects of pulse-
generator design are given in order to avoid restricting the available
information to radar applications.
Although the major part of this volume is written by a few members
of the Radiation Laboratory staff, many other individuals at the Radi-
ation Laboratory and elsewhere have contributed their ideas in the
preparation of thk material, and we hereby acknowledge their con-
tributions. Particular mention must be made of the work done by Miss
Anna Walter in connection with many of the mathematical analyses.
Her painstaking work in checking the mathematical derivations and
making the long and tedious calcul ations necessary for many of the curves
and numerical examples is gratefully acknowledged. We are glad to
acknowledge also the work of Miss F. Newell Dutton, who processed the
numerous pulse photographs that appear throughout the VOIume.
We are also indebted to the many people who have contributed their
time freely in reading various chapters and sections of the manuscript,
and who have made valuable suggestions for the improvement of the
discussion. We wish to acknowledge the help received in this way
from Mr. J. P. Hagen and his associates at the Naval Research Labora-
tory; Dr. J. E. Gorham and his associates at the Army Signal Corps
Laboratory; Dr. F. S. Goucher, Mr. E. P. Payne, Mr. A. G. Ganz, Mr.
A. D. Hasley, Mr. E. F. O’Neill, and Mr. W. C. Tinus of the Bell Tele-
phone Laboratories; Mr. E. G. F. Arnott, Mr. R. Lee, Mr. C. C. Horst-
man, and Dr. S. Siegel and his associates at the Westinghouse Electric
Corporation; Mr. H. W. Lord of the General Electric Company; Dr. A.
E. Whitford of the Radiation Laboratory and the University of Wiscon-
sin; and Dr. P. D. Crout of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The preparation of the manuscript and the illustrations for this
volume would have required a much longer time if we had not had
the aid of the Production Department of the (Mice of Publications of the
Radiation Laboratories. We wish to express our appreciation of the
efforts of Mr. C. Newton,’ head of this department, for his help in getting
the work done promptly and accurately.

THE AUTHORS.
CAMSFUDGE,
MASS.,
Juns, 1946.
 Contents

FOREWORD BY L. A. DUBBIDGE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

CEAP.l. INTRODUCTION . . . . 1
1.1. Parameters Fundamental to the Design of Pulse Generatore. . 1
1.2. The Basic Circuit of a pulse Generator. 5
1.3. Hard-tube Pulsere . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4. Line-type Pullers . . . . ..8
1.5. A Comparison of Hard-tube and Line-type Puleers. 13

PART I. THE HARD-TUBE PULSER

CHAP. 2. THE OUTPUT CIRCUIT OF A HARD-TUBE PULSER. 21

2.1. The Basic Output Circuit.. 21

THE DISCHARGINGOF THE STORAGE CONDENSER. . . 25

2.2. The Output Circuit with a Resistance Load. 26

2.3. The Output Circuit with a Biased-diode Load. 32

TEE CHARGING OF THE STORAGE CONDENSER 51

2.4. The Output Circuit with a High Resistance as the Isolating

Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...52
2.5. The Output Circuit with an Inductance or an Inductive Resistor
asthe Isolating Element.. 61

POWER TRANSFER TO THE LOAD . . . . 69

2.6. Irnpedance-matching and Pulse-transformer Coupling to the Load 70

2.7. The Effect of Stray Capacitance on the Pulaer Power Output 76
243. Output Power Regulation. . 77
29. Effects of Pulse-transformer Coupling to the Load 78

CHAP. 3. VACUUM TUBES AS SWITCHES . 90

3.1. Required Characteristics 9(I
3.2. The Characteristic Curves for Triodes and Tetrodes and their
Importance to the Function of a Pulser Switch Tube. 98
3.3. The Effect of Switch-tube and Load Characteristics on the
Puleer Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...108
xi
xii CONTENTS

CHAP. 4. DRIVER CIRCUITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

4.1. Tbe Bootstrap Driver, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...120
4.2. The Blocking Oscillator or Regenerative Driver . 124
4.3. The Multivibrator and pulse-forming-network Drivers . 132

CHAP. 5. PARTICULAR APPLICATIONS . 140

5.1. The Model 3 Pulee*A Ligh&weight Medium-power Pulser for
Airborne Radar Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...140
5.2. The Model 9 Pulser-A 1-Mw Hard-tube Pulser. 152
5.3. A High-power Short-pulse Hard-tube Pulser. 160
5.4. The Application of pulse-shaping Networks to the Hard-tube
Pukwr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...165

PART II. THE LINE-TYPE PULSER

CHAP. 6. THE PULSEFORMING NETWORK. 175

6.1. The Formation and Shaping of Pulses . . 175

6.2. Networks Derived from a Transmission Line 179
6.3. Guillemin’s Theory and the Voltage-fed Network 189
6.4. Current-fed Networks. . . . . .207
6.5. Materials and Construction. . 213
6.6. Test Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

CHAP. 7. THE DISCHARGING CIRCUIT OF THE LINE-TYPE PULSER 225

7.1. General Properties of the Discharging Circuit 225
7.2. Pulser Characteristics. . . 233
7.3. Pulser Regulation and Efficiency. 244
7.4. The Discharging Circuit and Pulse Shape. . 255
7.5. Computed and Actual Pulse Shapes . 261

CHAP. 8. SWITCHES FOR LINETYPE PULSERS. . 273

THE ROTARY SPAEK GAP..,. . . . . . . . . . . . .275
8.1. Electrical Considerations in the Design of Rotary Spark Gaps. 276
8.2. Considerations of Mechanical Design. 283
8.3. Rotary-gap performance . . . . 289

ENCLOSED FIXED SPARK GAPS.. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 294

8,4. General operating Characteristics of series Gaps. 296

8.5. Trigger Generators...,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..3o4
8.6. Division of Voltage Across Series Gaps . 312
8.7. General Considerations for Gap Design. . 316
8.8. The Cylindrical-electrode Aluminum-cathode Gap 318
8.9. The Iron-sponge Mercury-cathode Gap. . 327
8.10. The Three-electrode Fixed Spark Gap 332

THE HYDBOGEN THYRATRON. ... . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

8.11. General Operating Characteristics of the Hydrogen Thyratron 336

8.12. The Anode Circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 344
8.13. The Grid Circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...349
 ...
CONTENTS mu

CHAP. 9. THE CHARGING CTRCUIT OF THE LINE-TYPE PULSER 355

INDUCTANCE
CHARGINGFROMA D-c POWER SUPPLY. 356
9.1. General Analysis of D-c Charging . 356
9.2. Practical D-c Charging Reactors. . . . . . . 364
9.3. The Design of D-c Charging Reactors . . . 372

INDUCTANCE CHARGING FROM AN A-c SOURCE. . . . . 380

9,4. General Analysis of A-c Charging . . . . 380

9.5. A-c Resonant Charging. . . . . . . 386
9,6. A-c Nonresonant Charging 393
9.7. Practical A-c Charging Transformers. . . 400
98. The Design of High-reactance Transformers. . . 407
99. Miscellaneous Charging Circuits. . . . . . 414

CHAP. 10. PERFORMANCE OF LINE-TYPE PULSJ3RS . . . 417

10,1, Effects of Changes in Load Impedance . . . . 417
102. Short Circuits in the Load. . . . 423
10.3. Open Circuits and Protective Measures. . . . 431

PULSER PERFORMANCE WITH A MAGNETRON LOAD. . . . . . . . . . 435

10.4. Normal Operation of the Magnetron . . . . 435

10.5. Magnetron h’lode-changing . . . 438
103. Magnetron Sparking. . .441

CHAP. 11. PARTICULAR APPLICATIONS . . . . . . . 448

111. A High-power Rotary-gap R.dser. . . . . . . 448
11.2. A High-power Airborne Pulser. . . 454
11.3. Multiple-network Prdsers. . . . . . 463
11,4. The Anger Circuit .,..... . . . . . . . . . . . ...468
11.5. The Nonlinear-inductance Circuit . . 471
116. Special-purpose htput Circuits . . . 476
11.7. Multiple-pulse Line-type Pulsers. 485
11.8. Multiple-switch Circuit for Voltage Multiplication. 494

PART III. PULSE TRANSFORMERS

CHAP. 12. ELEMENTARY THEORY OF PULSE TRANSFORMERS 499

12,1. General Transformer Theory 499
122. Values of Elements in the Equivalent Circuit 510

CHAP. 13. PULSE-TRANSFORMER DESIGN. 532

13.1. General Pulse-transformer Design Considerations 532

13,2. Design Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
133. Typical Pulse-transformer Designs. 555

CHAP. 14. EFFECT OF PULSETRANSFORMER PARAMETERS ON

CIRCUIT BEHAVIOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...563

14.1. The Effect of Pulse-transformer Parameters on Pulse Shapes on

Resistance and Biased-diode or Magnetron Loads “. . 563
xiv CON TE.V TS

14.2. The Effect of Pulse-transformer Parameters on the Behavior of

Rcgrncrativc Pulse (generators. 575
143. The Effect of l’ulsc-transformer Pammctcrs on Frequency
Rmponsc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...591

CHAP. 15. JIATl~RIAIS AXD TIIEIR USES IX DESICN 5!)9

(“ORl~llATfi:RIA1....... 599
151. D-c I’ropwtirs and Test Results. 599
152. Pulse Xlagnetizatinn 613
15.3. I{;ncrgy Imss and ltquiwdrmt ( ‘ircuits 626
15.4, .\driitional Aspects of I’ulsc Jlagnctization 633
155. Trchniqurw for \Icasuring (‘ore Pmforrnancc 639

COIL ll.iTERI~L . . . . . . 648

156.Insulation . . . . . . . . . 648
157. JVirc . . . . . . . . . . .. 655

App~NDrx A. }lE.WGRIXG TECHNIQUES 661

OSCILLOSCOrlC \lETHOLrS. . . . . . . .. 662

Al. Signal Presentation. 662
A2. 1’UISC 3fcasurements 667
A3. I’ractical Considerations in Making Pulse hIcasurements 687
A,4. Voltage and Currcut llcasurcments in the Charging Circuit of a
Line-type Pulsar .,,...... . .,.....,,.,690

METEFLING TECHNIQUES . . . . . . . . . . . 692

A5.PulseV oltmctcrs . . . . . . 692

A.6. The Average-current Nleter. 701
A7. Auxiliary hlcasuring Techniques. 706

APPENDIX B. PULSI? DURATION AND AMPI,lTUDE 710

B.1. 13quivalcnt Rectangular Pulse by Conservation of Charge and

Energy. . . . . . . . 711
B2. F;quivalwrt Rectangular Pulse by hlinimurn Departure Areas 716
B3. .4 Comparison of the lfethods. 720

I.lSTOF SYIIIIO1,S . . . . . . . .. 723

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 729