David Brown became President of Berkeley Nucleonics in 2001, seven years after joining the company. Under his guidance, BNC's offerings have grown across both test-and-measurement and radiation-detection product lines. Successful project management activities in recent years include the introduction and launch of RF/microwave products, the acquisition of Directed Energy, Inc. in 2021, and the ongoing development of the Berkeley Nucleonics Academy. Brown holds a B.A. in entrepreneurial management from San Francisco State University. He is the second-generation operator of Berkeley Nucleonics and resides in San Rafael, California, with his wife and two children.
David is the sole author of this V2 edition. The V1 edition (2022) credited Bob Schmid and Cameron Simmons as co-contributors; their original V1 contributions, particularly on the high-current pulser product line, are preserved throughout this V2 edition with gratitude.
Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation (BNC) is a leading manufacturer of precision electronic instrumentation for test, measurement, and nuclear research. Corporate headquarters is in San Rafael, California, with additional manufacturing facilities and sales offices throughout the United States. BNC maintains an international network of manufacturer's representatives to provide global sales and support.
Founded in 1963, BNC initially developed custom pulse generators and now boasts the widest range of signal generators available from a single manufacturer, including light, high-voltage, TTL, RF/microwave, NIM, ARBs, and more. BNC's digital delay generators resolve time in 250 femtoseconds and offer 1 picosecond jitter, world-leading performance in both categories.
Directed Energy, Inc. (DEI) was founded in 1987. Early efforts included RF power MOSFETs, providing high performance through a patented DE-Series low-inductance, high-speed, high-power-density package. The company evolved to meet a growing need for system and module products using the same MOSFET designs. DEI developed an instrument product line, providing turnkey solutions for researchers and alleviating the need for in-house development.
The Directed Energy, Inc. product line was acquired by Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation in 2021 after many years of cooperation. The combined BNC-DEI catalog described in Chapter 9 is the result of that integration.
The Berkeley Nucleonics Online Academy is a user-centered library of short courses designed to familiarize students with basic principles and terminology across a range of technologies. The courses offer two to eight hours of instruction with CEU options and a certificate of completion. Courses are often bundled to provide a series of related topics. The courses include a combination of instruction, video, and diagrams to emphasize principles in test, measurement, and nuclear sciences.
This book serves as the companion text for the BNC Academy course on high-power pulse generators. Available at academy.berkeleynucleonics.com.
V2 thanks the engineering teams at BNC and the legacy DEI organization for product information, application examples, and technical review. Thanks also to the broader pulsed-power community whose published work informs every chapter.
The authors and editors of Pulse Generators (Glasoe and Lebacqz, 1948) deserve recognition for setting the standard that subsequent texts have measured themselves against. Eighty years on, the MIT Radiation Laboratory volumes remain the canonical reference on the field's foundations.
End of Appendix D.
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