Researches of Transmission Line Transformer

Application in High-voltage Pulse Source

WeiDong Zhao
Institute of Electrical Engineering and Information
AnHui University of Technology
Maanshan 243000, China
e-mail: zwd720819@163.com
Yong Hu
Institute of Electrica Engineering and Information
AnHui University of Technology
Maanshan 243000, China
e-mail: zhaoteng7276@163.com
Abstract-Transmission line transformer (TLT) is a new
type of pulse transformer developed by combining theory of
transmission lines and principle of transformer, its biggest
feature is good high-frequency characteristic, it can reduce the
effects of the distributed inductance and the distributed
capacitance of the traditional transformer on the transmission
of the pulse better. This paper introduces the transmission line
transformer theoretical model and its basic principles, the
conditions of the best match in the actual project and the
actual situation in the waveform distortion caused by
impedance mismatch based on transmission line theory and
wave catadioptric principle. The transmission line transformer
made use of the coaxial cable and the high-permeability
Fe-based amorphous magnetic material were put forward,
which was apply to the output transform devices and the
related high voltage pulse experiment was carried. The results
show that the transmission line transformer has good response
for the output pulse, the improvement of the rising time, the
lower energy consumption and the test result is consistent with
the theoretical calculation result.

Key wordsTransmission Line Transformer(TLT);
Transmission Line Theory; Impedance Match;
Inductive-adder
I. INTRODUCTION
Pulsed power technology is by saving energy in a long
time and fast compression, then conversion, and finally the
instantaneous release of tremendous power to the load.
Therefore, the application of pulsed power technology can
supply very large instantaneous power and mainly used in
high-tech and defense industries

[1,2]. How to improve the
pulse voltage and make the pulse front steeper is one of the
developments of modern pulsed power technology. The
withstand voltage of the switching devices will be a
parameter limiting to improve the output voltage of the
pulse source in practical applications, etc. The output of the
pulse source usually uses two ways, superimposing inducted
voltage and boosting by common pulse transformer, to raise
the output voltage. Although the superimposed induced
voltage can effectively overcome the pulse transmission
distortion because of the multi-module stack and 1:1 single
turn structure of the output transformer, its complex
structure with synchronous control system , and requiring
good consistency , therefore less used [3,4] . The traditional
pulse transformer makes use of the principle of flux
coupling of energy delivery between primary and secondary
side, which has simple structure [5]. The high-frequency
component of the nanosecond level fast rising edge of pulse
(the front) is very rich and possibly forms the LC oscillation
by leakage inductance exists in the coils and stray
capacitance between turns, resulting in the distortion of
output pulse. Transmission line transformer (TLT) transfers
energy in different ways and has good frequency response
for the high frequency pulse signal because its distributive
inductance and stray capacitance is uniformly distributed on
the whole line so that LC oscillation circuit does not exist
[5-7]. Based on the above reasons, we research output of
transmission line transformer formed by a coaxial cable.
This paper designed a transmission line transformer and its
application in high-voltage pulse source in order to analyze
the principle of transmission line transformer and the
relationship between matching and the frequency response.
. TRANSMISSION LINE TRANSFORMER
Rise time and bandwidth of the traditional pulse
transformer are influenced by the transformer leakage
inductance and stray capacitance between the windings. It is
difficult to transmit pulse without distortion when at high
frequency. Compared with ordinary transformer,
transmission line transformer transmits energy in different
ways, as shown in Fig.1. The distributed inductance and
stray capacitance between wires is uniformly distributed on
the whole line. At high frequency, when inputting the signal
in the ports 1 and 2, the capacitance was delayed charging
because the inductance value of the unit length varies with
the frequency increases. According to the transmission line
theory, the energy is transmitted through charging and
discharging of stray capacitance and distributed inductance
of the line.

Fig.1Transmission Line Equivalent Circuit
Therefore, a transmission line transformer is a
combination of a lumped parameter transformer and a
impedance converter of transmission line, which has simple
structure, wide frequency band, and the high frequency
characteristics [8,9].Therefore, it is appropriately to select
transmission line transformer to transmit pulse in order to
make the output pulse waveform no distortion and to
improve the output voltage in the small and medium-sized
pulse power source. The basic working principle of
transmission line transformer has no difference, though it
can be designed for the desired impedance transformation
451
978-1-4673-6322-8/13/$31.00 c 2013 IEEE
ratio according to the different topological.
Fig.2 is transmission line transformer equivalent circuit
with the impedance transformation ratio of 1:4, inner core
1-4 and the outer shielding line (ground) 2-3 of the coaxial
transmission line form double-line winding on the magnetic
core, and ports 1 and 3 short circuit, primary for line 2-3,
secondary for line 2-3 and 1-4. Since line 2-3 is not only a
part of the primary, but also a part of the secondary, and the
line 2-3 is always closely with line 1-4 of the secondary.
Therefore , the magnetic flux generated by the current of the
primary line 2-3 will be substantially through the secondary
loop , i.e. the leakage flux of the transformer is
approximately zero so that the leakage inductance can be
ignored . If the transmission line is a coaxial line , K , the
current coupling coefficient between the inner and the outer
conductor, is equal to 1 , i.e. K = 1 , in that case, the leakage
inductance of the coaxial transmission line transformer is
zero, and the conclusion is strict .

Fig.2 1:4 Transmission Line Transformer Equivalent Circuit
A. Transmission Line Equation
According to Fig.2, combined with the theory of
transmission line, we can get the following equations:
1 2 1 0 0 2 0 0
( )cos sin V V V l L C jZI l L C = +
(1)
2 1
1 2 0 0 0 0
( )
cos sin
V V
I I l L C j l L C
Z

= +
(2)
1 0 2 1
) ( V Z I I V
g
+ + =
(3)
2 2 L
V I R =
(4)
l ,
0
L , 0
C
, are respectively for the electrical length,
inductance per unit length and capacitor of transmission line,
0
Z is impedance of pulse generator and Z is characteristic
impedance.
Solution of the equation group, it yields
0 0
2
0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
(1 cos )
cos 2 (1 cos ) ( )sin
g
L
L
V l L C
I
Z R
R l L C Z l L C j Z l L C
Z

+
=
+ + + +

(5)
Output of power source is
2 2
2 0 0
2
2 2 2 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
(1 cos )
[ cos 2 (1 cos )] ( ) sin
g L
out L
L
L
V R l LC
P I R
R Z
R l LC Z l LC Z l LC
Z

+
= =
+ + + +

(6)
The formula (5) and (6) indicates that the transmission
coefficient and efficiency of the transmission line are both
related to frequency, the characteristic impedance of
transmission line, load impedance and impedance of pulse
source. Therefore, the pass band and the matching between
the internal resistance of the pulse source and load
impedance should be considered in order to obtain the
maximum transmission efficiency.
In the low frequency
0 0
1 l L C <<

0 0
cos 1 l L C ,
0 0
sin 0 l L C
we can get

2
0
2
) 4 (
4
Z R
V R
P
L
g L
out
+
= 7
Obviously, for maximum output power, Pout, it needs

0
4Z R
L
=
8
At high frequency,
2
0 0
sin l L C in Formula (6) is no
longer satisfied. In order to guarantee low-frequency
response, ) (
Z
R R
Z
g L
+ in Formula (5) should be as small
as possible. Through the method of the mathematical limit ,
we can get the minimum condition at
0 L
Z R Z = .To sum up,
the optimum transmission conditions to make impedance
transformation ratio to be 1:4 is
0 L
Z R Z =
0 L
Z R =
.
When the conditions are satisfied, the power source
output is

2
0 0
2
0 0 0 0
4 (1 cos )
(1 3 cos ) 4 si n
g
o ut
L
V l L C
P
R l L C l L C

+
=

+ +


Transmission coefficient is
2 2
1 1 1 1 max
0
1 1
(1 3cos ) 4 sin
4(1 cos )
out
l L C l L C P
T
P l L C

+ +
=
+

In the case of best transmission performance, the
impedance transformation ratio needs to be 1:4 for TLT.
Therefore, an output without distortion can obtain after
v l t /
1
= ( l is the length of the transmission line, v is the
wave propagation velocity), where the voltage gain is 2. In
fact, due to the very broad spectrum of input pulse, the best
transmission condition is difficult to completely meet, for
example, in the low frequency region even if we assume
that 0 0
1 l L C << , so 0 0
cos 1 l L C
0 0
sin 0 l L C
, still
have some error. The sine and cosine functions of the
Taylor expansion at 1 1 1
C L l
= 0.1, the error in
respectively 0.2% and 0.02% after ignoring the higher order
item, the error is very small. However, medium and high
frequency component is concerned in the practical
engineering. The best transmission matching performance
is
0 0 1
Z R Z R Z
L L
= = = .
B. The Impedance Matching of Pulse Source and Load
As scattering still exists in pulse transmission, we can
always get the optimum matching on large band for primary
pulse source and terminal impedance. Well briefly discuss
matching, wave refraction and reflection through wave
process in the follows. The equivalent circuit of pulse
generator is shown in Fig.3, where Hydrogen Thyratron is
used as a switch. In Fig.4, The pulse transmission has three
sections, which are Z
0
, Z
1
, and Z
2
for impedances of pulse
generator, TLT, and load respectively.

Fig.3 Equivalent RLC Circuit
Fig.3 in which L is the inductance of the loop distribution,
including wire inductance, capacitor inductor and switch
conduction spark inductors, etc. R
g
is the spark channel
resistance and the wire resistance. R is a load resistor or
impedance. C is the storage capacitor. K is hydrogen
452 2013 IEEE 8th Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA)
thyratron . Obviously, the dashed box portion constitutes the
pulse source and its internal resistance (impedance), the
circuitry for CLR circuit, its impedance should be constitute
by the characteristic impedance of the LC circuit Z
0
and R
g
.
C
L
Z =
0
9

Fig.4 Schematic Diagram of the Transmission Process
Since the turn-on resistance of hydrogen thyratron is very
small, so it is appropriate that pulse source internal
resistance (impedance) is replaced by
0
Z L C = while
ignoring line resistance, and impedance matching of
transmission line transformer and pulse source only needs to
match characteristic impedance. According to formula (9)
we can obtain a matching by adjusting the magnitude of the
L and C. We always minimize L in order to reduce the pulse
front. Therefore, it is feasible to reduce storage capacitor
and increase the impedance of the pulse source to match
transmission line transformer while the energy storage is
enough.
Impedance of TLT is determined by both characteristic
impedance and magnetic core properties. The direct load of
pulse source is a plate-type bounded-wave simulator ended
with an absorption resistance. Usually, the absorption
resistance is selected to match the simulator impedance,
which is given by

W
H
Z
2
ln 120
3
= (10)
H and W are, respectively, the height and the width of the
simulator. Thus height H and width W can be tuned to
match the impedance of TLT.
Next, we will analyze waveform distortion caused by
impedance mismatch. Take Z (TLT section) and Z1
(simulator section) for example as seen in Fig.4, for
simplicity, we only concern the rise edge. Assuming that the
pulse waveform is an infinite bevel flat-roofed wave with
linear rising edge and is shown in Fig.5:


Fig.5 Pulse Transmission Process


Fig.6 Schematic Diagram of the Voltage on B

Assuming that (1) the wave enters into point A at t=0
with gradient at leading edge and speed of v , (2)the
effective distance from terminal of TLT to simulator's input
port is
1
l , (3) the amplitude of the bevel flat-roofed wave is
U0, and (4) the wave arrives at point B after
1
l v = ,
reaches its maximum at
/
0 1
U T =
, the voltage at point B
(leading edge of the simulator) can then be expressed as
0
2 1
2
0
2
U
Z Z
Z
U U
B
+
= =
(11)
And the amplitude of reflection wave can be written as
0 0
U U U
f
=
(12)
At
1 1
2l v =
, the reflected wave arrives at point B, adds
with the input wave, which is repeated. Distortion will
emerge with mismatching impedance from Fig.6. Distortion
is not included in Fig.6 for clearly visualization. Actually,
the effective distance
1
l is very small in transmission
process. As a result, the voltage adding steps in Fig.6 should
have shrunk to an infection point.
C. The Analysis of the Pulse Response of Magnetic Core
Material
The lowest high-order mode cutoff frequency of the
transmission line is

2 2
1 1
2
1
b a
f +

13
a , b ,

and represent respectively an inner and

outer radius for the transmission lines, dielectric constant
and permeability. The formula (13) shows the frequency
band of the transmission line transformer in the low
frequency band is cut. Similarly, the cutoff frequency can be
changed by changing a , b ,

and . Considering
the economic cost, changing the permeability

is often
used as a preferred approach among these parameters, so in
order to improve low frequency performance of the
transmission line transformer. In full consideration of high
frequency transmission we use the high permeability of
Fe-based crystal magnetic material and take
0 0 L L
Z R Z R Z = = = as the best transmission matching.
Magnetic loop ,which is made of iron-based amorphous
alloy, has high-saturation magnetic induction,
high-frequency response and fast pulse response
characteristics, excellent magnetic properties, small core
losses, good temperature stability and oil resistance, and
many other fine features, they have been widely used in
pulse transformers, magnetic switches and linear
transformers (LTD) pulsed power technology field
[ 10-12 ] .

. HIGH VOLTAGE PULSE SOURCE

Fig.7 is high voltage pulse source system, principle of
work of the entire electric circuit is: high voltage DC power
supply charges the capacitor C through the LC fundamental
series resonance circuit. Then we can produce a pulse
voltage by controlling to switch the hydrogen thyratron on
and off after the capacitor C being charged fully. Finally,
the pulse voltage is output through the transmission line
transformer. The hydrogen thyratron trigger signal is
produced by the DSP to control the turn-on or turn-off
through the drive and control circuits. The biggest constraint
of the using of hydrogen thyratron in high voltage pulse
source is the output power and voltage, the current
international mature products of its maximum output power
and voltage can amount to 10GW/100kV which can meet
the high power pulse output needs, but at the risk of high
price. Domestic hydrogen thyratron technology at 35kV and
below is more mature , stable performance , the repetition
frequency of up to 200Hz , and relatively inexpensive.
2013 IEEE 8th Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA) 453
Therefore, the system selects 35kV hydrogen thyratron as a
switching device and uses the coaxial structure of the
transmission line transformer to improve the output voltage.

Fig.7 Schematic Diagram of the System of High Voltage Pulse Source

. EXPERIMENT AND ANANLYSIS

The load used in the experiment is parallel-plate bounded
wave simulator of which the impedance is approximately
75 , followed by a resistance of solution of CuSO4 about
100(18
o
C, under DC conditions checksum ), a pulse
source voltage is approximately 12.5kV . The output
voltage was measured with a Tektronix P6015A voltage
probe, in which the intrinsic standoff ratio is 1:1000, and
then decayed 10 times through DS1052E oscilloscope.
Cable, the special power grounding coaxial cable filled with
nylon, is selected and its impedance and withstand voltage
are, respectively, 50 and 50kV. The experiment with two
series of inductive-adder was shown in Fig.8 (a), it can be
seen that the leading edge of the output pulse more slowly,
about 40ns. The output amplitude of the pulse should be
twice of the working voltage without consideration of the
loss of the line itself, and the measured voltage is 22kV,
which dropped 3kV.
Fig.8 (b) showed the output pulse waveform of TLT, it
can be seen that the output pulse has a very fast fall-time of
18ns and the measured amplitude is 24kV only dropped
1kV, basically match with formula (9), and the drops may
be caused by circuit losses itself. Moreover, the footstep in
leading edge of TLT may be caused by the impedance
mismatching between the output impedance of pulse source
and TLT characteristic impedance or the output stray
capacitance and distribution inductance.
In order to get a higher output voltage, we can increase
the TLTs series and select the 1:N2 impedance
transformation ratio mode. To obtain the higher voltage
transformation ratio and better output waveform by
changing the pulse generator, impedance of parallel plate
bounded wave simulator and resistance of absorption.


(a)

b
Fig. 8 (a) Superimposed Output Pulse Waveform
(b) Output Pulse Waveform of Transmission Line Transformer
. CONCLUSIONGH
This paper analyzes the transmission characteristics of the
transmission line transformer and the catadioptric process of
the traveling wave, and carries out comparative experiments
of a conventional transformer inductive-addr and the output
of the transmission line transformer. The leading edge of the
output waveform the conventional transformer is distorted
due to the presence of the leakage inductance and
distributed capacitance. Transmission line transformer is the
use of these parameters to achieve the principles of the
transmission line and the transformer principle combined,
so that the output waveform and amplitude was significantly
better than the traditional transformer inductive-adder
output mode. The results of experiment are basically
consistent with the theoretical analysis.
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454 2013 IEEE 8th Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA)