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The energy and cost calculation for a Marx pulse generator based on input DC
voltage, capacitor values and number of stages

Conference Paper · December 2012

DOI: 10.1109/PECon.2012.6450315

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 2012 IEEE International Conference on Power and Energy (PECon), 2-5 December 2012, Kota Kinabalu Sabah, Malaysia

The Energy and Cost Calculation for a Marx Pulse

Generator Based on Input DC Voltage, Capacitor
Values and Number of Stages
Arash Toudeshki, Norman Mariun, Hashim Hizam, Noor Izzri Abdul Wahab
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Email: norman@eng.upm.edu.my

Abstract—Visualization of the energy equation can simplify

understanding the performance of a Marx pulse generator. In
this paper, the energy of a Marx pulse generator is calculated
and visualized for input dc voltage from 1 to 20 kV, value of the
capacitor from 1 to 33 nF and the number of stages from 1 to
20 stages. Moreover, in order to calculate the approximate cost of
the Marx pulse generator, an equation proposed and evaluated.

Index Terms—pulse generator, energy, cost, Marx pulse gene-

rator, high voltage.

I. I NTRODUCTION
The simplicity of the circuit configuration and performance
of the Marx pulse generator, enabling its usage in a wide
range of application such as science, military and industry.
Its topology is simple and only includes capacitors, resistors
and switches. The Marx pulse generator has been introduced
in 1923. It is generating the pulses by charging the capacitors
in parallel and discharging them in series into a load [1]–[3].
Since that date, many attempts have been made to improve the
performance and develop the topology of the Marx circuit [4]–
[7], and recently attempts have been made to make it in smaller
size [8] and portable [9]. However, the main mechanism of
this circuit which is the charge and discharge of capacitors,
remains the same [3].
Depend on the application, to design a Marx pulse generator,
we need to understand more about the correlation between
energy stored, input voltage, capacitor values, number of
stages and their effects on cost of the Marx pulse generator.
Although, theoretically it can be imagined any output voltage
and energy for a Marx pulse generator, the standard values for
capacitors, maximum adjective insulation breakdown voltage,
size and their effects on the cost and volume of the Marx pulse
generator, limits the feasibility of our desirable outputs.
Based on the above, this paper attempts to calculate, visu-
alize and present the relationship between stored energy, input
voltage, capacitor values, number of stages and their effects
on the cost of a Marx pulse generator. In order to calculate
the parameters, it is assumed that all capacitors have already
been fully charged and all equations in this paper are valid for
ε moment before the stored energy begins to discharge to the
load. Furthermore, it is also assumed that the price of the DC
input voltage has no effect on the total cost of the Marx pulse
Fig. 1. The Marx pulse generator. Mechanism of (a) charge of the capacitors
and (b) discharge to the load [7].
generator.
II. P ROPOSED C ALCULATION BASED ON THE S TORED
E NERGY
The concept of a universal Marx pulse generator [7] is
shown in Fig. 1 and the charge and discharge mechanism
are also simplified and shown in Fig. 2. Based on the main
assumption of this paper, the energy E in Fig. 2(a), when
each parallel capacitor charged up to maximum voltage, can
be calculated via (1) [10]:
1
E= CV2 (1)
2
where C is the value of each capacitor, and V is the value
of input DC voltage of the system. In the energy calculation,
it is also assumed that the values of all capacitors are equal.
In Fig. 1(b), next to the closing switches, exactly at the ε
moment before the stored energy begins to discharge to the
load, all capacitors connected in series and the equivalent total
capacitance in new condition from C changes to (2).
1
Ceq = Pn 1 (2)
i=1 C

733
 where n is the number of capacitors or levels. By calculating
(2), the equivalent capacitance yields as (3).
C
Ceq = (3)
n
The energy of the new system, based on the discharge
mechanism [3], (1) and (2) can be calculated as (4).
2
(n V )
E= Pn
2 i=1 C
For computerizing the calculations, Equation (4) can also
simplify to (5).
n
1 X
E= CV2
2 i=1
By solving (5) the total energy yields as (6):
1 tion (6), a program in C++ language was created. The flow-
E = nC V 2 (6)
2 charts of Fig. 4 have used to calculate and generate the
In addition, by comparing (1) and (6) it can be seen that
the total energy of the system, at the ε moment before the
stored energy begins to discharge to the load, in Fig. 2(b),
is becoming n times more than the stored energy in the each
capacitor individually in Fig. 2(a).
III. M ETHODOLOGY
In this paper, all the values are useful for a Marx pulse
generator which is producing the discharge pulses, less than a
few hundreds of nanoseconds, the maximum voltage peak of
400 kV in 20 stages and energy of one to 50 Joules for each
pulse that discharges to a 50 Ω resistive load.
In order to visualize the relationship between the stored
energy, input voltage, capacitor values, number of stages of
the Marx pulse generator; under three different conditions, the
matrices of the energy based on (6) are generated.
1) The input DC voltage was varied from 1 to 20 kV, and
the capacitor value has varied between 1 to 33 nF, where
the number of stages was 10.
2) The number of stages was varied from 1 to 20, and the
input DC voltage was varied between 1 to 20 kV, where
the value of the capacitor was 33 nF.
Fig. 2. Energy storage in the Marx pulse generator. Mechanism of (a) charge
and (b) discharge.
(4)
Fig. 3. Method for producing the energy graphs.
3) The capacitor value was varied from 1 to 33 nF, and the
(5)
number of stages was varied between 1 to 20, where the
input DC voltage was 10 kV.
Further, as shown in Fig. 3, based on the energy equa-
matrices of energy, E(C,V) (Fig. 4(a)), E(V,n) (Fig. 4(b))
and E(n,C) (Fig. 4(c)), respecting to the above conditions.
Next, after the matrices of the energy has been produced, the
data was stored in three separate *.CSV Files. Subsequently,
the *.CSV Files were imported into the workspace of the
MATLAB software. Finally, the matrices of the energy was
plotted by using the command for a contour plot of the energy
matrices where the number of stages is 10; capacitor values
are 33 nF; and input DC voltage is 10 kV.
In order to calculate the cost of the Marx pulse generator,
it needs to consider on the maximum breakdown voltage
(Vbrk ) for ceramic capacitors. In this regard, to obtain the
higher breakdown voltages, the capacitors are connected in
series, and to obtain the same value of capacitance, each
branch of series capacitors is connected in parallel with other
branches. This will cause an increase on the price of the Marx
circuit. Therefore, the matrix for the cost factor of the Marx
pulse generator (CFM) is simply generated by the following
algorithm.
Ensure: 1 ≤ Vbrk < 6
1: for n = 0 to 20 do
2: for V = 0 to 20 do
3: if (V mod Vbrk ) then
4: CFM(n,V ) ← (V /Vbrk ) × n
5: else
6: Vc ← Round toward positive infinity of (V /Vbrk )
7: CFM(n,V ) ← Vc × n
8: end if
9: end for
10: end for
Since the price of the resistor is much less than the capacitor,
the parameter that was used to calculate the cost, was only the
capacitor, and the effect of the resistor price on the total cost
of the Marx pulse generator was neglected. Moreover, based
on the algorithm, the matrix of the CFM is calculated where
the number of stages is varied from 1 to 20, and input DC
734
 Fig. 4. Flowcharts of calculating the energy and producing the energy matrices (a) E(C,V), (b) E(V,n) and (c) E(n,C).
voltage from 1 to 20 (these values are per unit (p.u.) with
the base value of 1000). This normalization helps to propose
a flexible CFM equation which is independent of the market
price changes. The value of cost in p.u., is exactly the same
as the number of capacitors in the Marx bank circuit. Hence,
this value times the market price of each, will yield the cost
of a Marx pulse generator.
IV. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
As a result, the matrix of E(C,V) is generated by the aid
of the flowchart of Fig. 4(a), and the method of Fig. 3. The
graph of the energy is visualized in Fig. 5. This graph (Fig. 5)
735
clearly shows the dependence impact of the produced output
energy in a Marx pulse generator on the values of the input
DC voltage and the capacitance, where the number of stages
is 10.
Similarly, the matrix of E(V,n) is created by the help of the
flowchart of Fig. 4(b), and the method of Fig. 3. As a result,
the energy graph is shown in Fig. 6. This graph (Fig. 6) also
shows the dependence impact of the output energy of a Marx
generator on the number of stages and the value of input DC
voltage, where the capacitor value is 33 nF.
In a similar way, by implementing the flowchart of Fig. 4(c)
and the method of Fig. 3, the matrix of E(n,C) was produced.
As a result, Fig. 7 is generated to visualize the energy in a
graph. This graph (Fig. 7) shows the dependence impact of
the output energy in a Marx pulse generator, on the value of
capacitance and number of stages, where the input DC voltage
is 10 kV.
Based on the visualized energy graphs of Fig. 5, 6 and 7,
it can be observed that the amount of the stored energy in a
Marx circuit, depends more on the input voltage, compared
to the number of stages and the values of capacitors. This is
because the energy in (6) varies with the square value of the
input voltage and it has a linear relationship to the value of
capacitance and the number of stages.
On the other hand, these visualized energy graphs are useful
for designing a Marx pulse generator. Designers, by using
Fig. 5, 6 and 7, can easily find the value of capacitance, input
DC voltage, number of stages and the amount of the energy
that can be produced by delivering the chosen values, inside
the window of 1 to 33 nF; 1 to 20 kV; and 1 to 20 stages.
Although the values used in this paper were examples due
to the availability of the components in the market, the method
of energy calculation and visualization in Fig. 3 and 4 can be
expanded for any range of the number of stages, capacitance
and input DC voltage, to produce the similar energy graphs.
Based on (6), the stored energy in a Marx pulse generator
is depending on the value of capacitors, alike the number of
stages. The value of capacitor C can be calculated from (6) as
(7), for the expected amount of the stored energy where the
number of stages and input DC voltage are fixed at a constant
value.
2E
C=
nV 2
And the number of stages n can be obtained via (6) as
Fig. 5. Energy depends on input DC voltage and capacitance where the
number of stages is 10.
Fig. 6. Energy depends on the number of stages and input DC voltage where
the capacitance is 33 nF.
(8), for the expected amount of stored energy where the
capacitance and input DC voltage is fixed at a constant value.
2E
n= (8)
CV2
As it was mentioned before, (7) and (8) shown that the
number of stages and value of the capacitor has the same effect
on the stored energy in a Marx pulse generator. However, to
get the same value of the energy, it is strongly suggested that
(7) it would be better to increase the value of capacitance rather
than increasing the number of stages. The reason is that by
increasing the number of stages, due to multiplying the size,
structural volume of the system and extra resistor equipment,
the cost of the system will increase more than when the bigger
value of capacitance is used in the system. Nevertheless, in
most circumstances this is unavoidable.
Like (7) and (8), the input DC voltage can be calculated
via (6) as (9), for the expected amount of the energy where
the capacitance and the number of stages is fixed at a constant
value.
√
√ nC E
V =± 2 (9)
nC
Consequently, it is clear in (9) that varying the input DC
voltage has a big effect on the stored energy. Even, this effect is
significantly more than the effect of C (7) and n (8). Therefore,
to get the highest amount of the energy, adjusting of the input
DC voltage, as it is more flexible, would be the best option,
compared with varying the number of stages or the value of
capacitance. In this case, the maximum breakdown voltage
of capacitors and insulation also need to be considered. The
breakdown voltage and also insulation and coordination limit
the increase of the input DC voltage as it is expected. To
eliminate this limitation, designers need to approach to the
736

expected value of the energy by the aid of increasing the value
of the capacitors and also increasing the number of stages. This
will cause an increase in the cost of the Marx circuit.
Hence, the Equation (10) is presented and it can be used to
predict the approximate expenditure (CFM) of the Marx pulse
generator which is designed by considering the maximum
value of breakdown voltage, with any number of stages and
any value of input voltage, without using the program to
generate the cost matrix of the Marx generator.
CFM = (α V + β) n
where coefficient of α is calculated via (11):
α = 2.126 e−1.236 Vbrk + 0.454 e−0.173 Vbrk
and coefficient of β is calculated via (12):
β = 0.396 e0.059 Vbrk − 1.124 e−0.986 Vbrk
where Vbrk is the maximum breakdown voltage for the
selected capacitor in kV, V is the value of input voltage value
of input DC voltage in kV, and n is the number of the stages.
Equation (10) is verified for the number of stages from 1 to
20, input DC voltage from 1 to 20 kV and breakdown voltage
of 1 to 5 kV. The percentage of error of between 0.0555
to 13.1310% was observed during this verification, as it is
shown in Table I. Although, the accuracy of the equation (10)
is reduced by increasing the value of the breakdown voltage,
since the available capacitors on the market can suffer less than
these voltages, this equation can simplify the cost prediction
with a small and an acceptable percentage of error.
Fig. 7. Energy depends on the capacitance and the number of stages where
the input DC voltage is 10 kV.
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TABLE I
P ERCENT E RROR OF CFM
Vbrk (kV) Min (%) Mean (%) Max (%)
1 0.0372 0.0555 0.0584
2 2.0140 7.3303 28.9468
3 0.3027 8.9121 37.9887
4 1.6438 11.0655 44.7535
5 1.0167 13.1310 49.9493
V. C ONCLUSION
(10)
In this paper, the stored energy in a Marx generator, where
the capacitor value vary from 1 to 33 nF, input dc voltage from
1 to 20 kV and number of stages from 1 to 20, was calculated
and visualized. In addition, the equations for calculating the
(11) energy, value of capacitors, number of stages and input dc
voltage were presented. It is found that since the input dc
voltage, is a square value, it has more effect to get the higher
amount of energy production rather than the number of stages
(12) and the value of capacitances. Finally, the approximate cost
factor of the Marx pulse generator (CFM), in p.u., can be used
to predict the total cost of a Marx pulse generator is proposed.
Evaluation of CFM has shown that the proposed equation is
more precise for low breakdown voltage.
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