Z Pulsed Power Facility
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The Z Pulsed Power Facility, informally known as the Z machine or simply Z, is the largest high frequency electromagnetic wave generator in the world, operated by Sandia National Laboratories in Albuq
Overhead view from a fisheye lens of the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratory. Due to the extremely high voltage, the power feeding equipment is submerged in concentric chambers of 2 megalitres (2,000 m3) of transformer oil and 2.3 megalitres (2,300 m3) of deionized water, which act as insulators. Nevertheless, the electromagnetic pulse when the machine is discharged causes impressive lightning, referred to as a "flashover", which can be seen around many of the metallic objects in the machine.
Z machine cross section
Z machine diagram
Marx generator
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A Marx generator is an electrical circuit first described by Erwin Otto Marx in 1924. Its purpose is to generate a high-voltage pulse from a low-voltage DC supply. Marx generators are used in high-ene
Z Pulsed Power Facility
…the application of Z-pinches to plasma compression. The Z machine layout is cylindrical. On the outside it houses huge capacitors discharging through Marx generators which generate a one microsecond high-voltage pulse. This pulse is then compressed by a factor of 10 to enable the creation of 100 ns discharges. Most…
A small demonstration Marx generator (tower on the right). It is a ten stage generator. The main discharge is on the left. The nine smaller sparks that can be seen in the image are the spark gaps that connect the charged capacitors in series.
Marx generator used for testing high-voltage power-transmission components at TU Dresden, Germany
600 kV 10-stage Marx generator in operation
800 kV Marx generator in laboratory at the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur India.