A rectangular pulse Marx generator with an adjustable dead time drive circuit

A rectangular pulse Marx generator with an adjustable dead time (DT) drive circuit is presented. The proposed topology introduces a load-side discharge path to provide a controlled low-impedance route for removing the residual charge stored in the load-side parasitic capacitance during turn-off, thereby improving the falling-edge transition. Meanwhile, the series-connected discharge path structure prevents a single spurious turn-on event from directly forming a local low-impedance path, thereby reducing the probability of short-circuit path formation. To coordinate the discharge and charge switching actions, an RC-delay-based magnetic drive circuit is developed, enabling continuous DT adjustment from 0 to 200 ns. In addition, a resistor–capacitor–diode (RCD) voltage-balancing circuit is designed for the series-connected charging metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors. Experimental results show that the maximum voltage deviation from the ideal value is reduced from more than 66% to about 10%. An eight-stage prototype generates ∼5 kV from a 650 V input with a 20 kΩ load. Without the RCD voltage-balancing circuit, the measured rise and fall times are ∼48 and 72 ns, respectively. After introducing the RCD voltage-balancing circuit, the rise time increases to ∼60 ns due to the additional capacitance, while the fall time remains nearly unchanged. The output pulse width is continuously adjustable from 2 to 10 μs, and stable operation at 10 kHz is demonstrated. These results verify that the proposed generator is effective for reliable high-voltage rectangular pulse generation with adjustable DT and improved voltage balancing.