Study of a fast, high-impedance, high-voltage pulse divider

A novel two-tube, two-stage, self-compensating resistive voltage divider with minimized stray capacitance using copper sulphate solution was explored to measure a fast high-impulse voltage output from a cable Blumlein generator. Self-compensation of the probe was achieved by matching the RC time constant in the two dividing stages. Stray capacitance of the probe was minimized by electric field contouring and matching methods. Experiments were carried out to investigate the probe responses as affected by self-capacitance, impedance, and stray capacitance. Calibration of the optimized probe showed a rise time of 15 ns at a load impedance of 8.68 kΩ with a hold-off voltage of 600 kV.