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at University of Michigan

MAIZE Linear Transformer Driver Facility

About the Facility

MAIZE is a small-footprint (3-m-diameter) MA-class pulsed power facility with many supporting diagnostics

112 Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering (NAME) Building
2600 Draper Dr.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Website

The facility is used for studying magnetically driven experiments of many different kinds, including fast z-pinch implosions, X-pinch implosions, deuterium pinches for nuclear fusion studies, magnetic reconnection experiments, field reversed configurations, and more.

The MAIZE pulsed power facility at the University of Michigan provides an excellent testbed for hands-on student training in pulsed-power-based science & technology.  MAIZE is a 3-m-diameter, single-cavity linear transformer driver (LTD).  MAIZE includes 40 spark gap switches, 80 total 40 nF capacitors, 2 iron cores, a high voltage insulator, a coaxial transmission line section, a radial transmission line section, a load region with conical power feed, a 1-m-diameter vacuum chamber, and an oil chamber.

Diagnostic Summary

  • Peak current of 0.5–1 MA (depending on load inductance and charge voltage)
  • Rise time of 100–250 ns (depending on load inductance and charge voltage)
  • Driver impedance of 0.1 ohms (typically ~10 kA per 1 kV of charge voltage)
  • Typically operate with a charge voltage of ±70 kV to get a peak current of about 700 kA and a rise time of about 200 ns into a load inductance of about 10 nH
  • External Bz coils capable of providing a uniform 2 T over cm-scale sizes (these are the same applied Bz coils as those used in MagLIF experiments)
  • Gas-puff z-pinch system with various gases, including deuterium
  • 12-frame laser shadowgraphy (or 12-frame visible-light self-emission imaging)
  • 2-frame MCP for self-emission imaging in XUV
  • Laser interferometry imaging
  • Laser Faraday rotation imaging
  • Time-integrated x-ray pinhole camera
  • Time-gated, fiber-coupled visible spectroscopy (0.75-m spectrometer)
  • Micro B-dot probes
  • Load current (Rogowski coil and Bdot probes)
  • Silicon diodes and photo-conducting diamond (PCD) detectors with various filters
  • Bubble detectors for neutron yield
  • Beryllium activation probe for neutron yield
  • Extensive use of additive manufacturing (3D printing) for custom setups
  • Vacuum chamber ports and floor space available for user-supplied diagnostics

Latest News from MAIZE

Graduate students Joe Chen works with professor Ryan McBride at the 200-kV, 1-MA, 100-ns MAIZE facility at the Plasma
26 / Feb / 2024
Quadrupolar density structures in driven magnetic reconnection experiments with a guide field
interferometer min
10 / Feb / 2025
Recently developed interferometer allows for low density plasma measurements in MITLs
drag
All news

Call for Proposals

Now accepting proposals for research projects at our facilities. Your proposals will be reviewed by our team and grants awarded to researchers who meet criteria.

Submit a Proposal
person working with high voltage