In June 2000, Diversified Technologies, Inc. (DTI) of Bedford,MA was awarded two research grants by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop pulsed power technology for the Next Linear Collider project.. The grants are funding the development of a prototype ěHybridî modulator and research into fast switches scalable to the 1MV level.

The Hybrid Modulator being developed under the first grant utilizes an 80 kV, 3200 A solid state switch driving a 6.5:1 pulse transformer. This system, which will be delivered to SLAC in 2001, will provide 500 kV, 3.2 uS pulses at 530 A to drive a pair of NLC klystrons. In the second SBIR effort, DTI is investigating scaling this solid state technology to provide 500 kV ń 1 MV direct switching. Eliminating the pulse transformer in these designs offers the potential for significantly higher modulator efficiency. This effort includes designing and prototyping elements of both a solid state ëhardí switch, and a solid state Marx Bank. In this paper, DTI will describe these three architectures under development, present recent results from these efforts, and review the challenges, current status, and applicability of very high voltage solid state modulators to NLC and other high energy physics applications.