Advanced nanodielectric material development and scaling for use in compact ultra-high voltage capacitor prototypes

Abstract

The dielectric material employed in this effort is a proprietary nanocomposite material, MU100. The material was initially developed to shrink high frequency, high voltage, dielectric loaded antennas; however, due to its unique material characteristics, the nanocomposite has shown promise in development of high voltage capacitors. Previous work has shown small-scale samples of the high permittivity nanocomposite material to have an average dielectric strength of 220 kV/cm with peak breakdown fields in excess of 328 kV/cm. When scaling up to realize application specific voltages, failure modes become more pronounced due to volume effects of the nanocomposite and field enhancement factors at the electrode dielectric interfaces. This work describes how the material was increased in volume from small samples up to compact capacitor prototypes capable of repeatable performance at 500 kV to in excess of 1 MV with lifetimes greater than 10,000 shots.