A novel, compact and portable 2-LTD-Brick x-pinch radiation source: its development and radiation performance

Almost all well-known x-pinch x-ray radiation machines are large, based on a conventional Marx generator, and lack portability. The literature suggests that a current rate of rise of 1 kA/ns or more is required for "good" x-pinch radiation performance, which, for reasonable current rise times, translates to a current requirement of 100 kA or more. Those requirements are difficult to achieve in a limited volume, if one wants to build a compact machine without the use of traditional Marx generators, pulse-forming lines, and transmission lines. In this work we describe a new, compact and portable x-pinch driver based on two "slow" LTD bricks combined into one solid unit. The short-circuit tests demonstrated the required 1-kA/ns current rate-of-rise and x-pinch shots confirmed "good" x-pinch radiation performance and revealed the potential for many x-pinch applications.