About

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Making A Difference

Tetra has over 200 years of combined technical & management experience in Pulsed Power R&D, design, fabrication, and commercialization.  Our facility and equipment are located in Albuquerque, NM.

Our History

Since 1977, Tetra has been working to develop advanced technologies for government and commercial projects.

  • 1977

    Tetra was founded to develop advanced pulsed electric laser technologies.

  • ELF Codes

    Tetra developed the "ELF" codes for design of Gas Discharge Laser Electrodes.

  • 1985 - 1992

    Tetra developed numerous Pulsed Power Systems for SDI ("Star Wars")

  • PBFA-II

    Tetra used the "ELF" Codes for modeling of laser-triggered gas switches on Sandia's PBFA-II

  • Late 1990's

    Tetra shifts focus to commercial markets.

  • 2002

    Tetra focuses efforts on rock drilling and development of the RePED technology.

  • 2018 to Present

    Tetra works toward the commercialization of RePED, HV switch development, and mining applications.

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Our Facility

  • Located in Albuquerque, NM
  • 12,000 sqft. of laboratory and fabrication space
  • Several pulsed power systems capable of generating up to 150kV pulses, peak powers of 100MW, average power >100kW 
  • Inventory of relevant test equipment such as oscilloscopes and high voltage power supplies
  • In-house machining and fabrication capability to make prototype components
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Our Patents

2019     Repetitive Pulsed Electric Discharge Drills Including Downhole Formation Evaluation, US Pat.10,407,995, 9/10/2019, William M. Moeny

2018     Repetitive Pulsed Electric Discharge Apparatuses and Methods of Use, US Pat. 10,060,195, 8/28/2018, William M. Moeny

2017     Method and Apparatus for Isolating and Switching Lower Voltage Pulses from High Voltage Pulses in Electrocrushing and Electrohydraulic Drills, US Pat.10,113,364, 10/30/2018, ZA Pat.201602793, 10/25/2017, William M. Moeny, Josh Gilbrech, Richard Adler

2015     Apparatus and Method for Supplying Electrical Power to an Electrocrushing Drill, US Pat. 9,016,359, 4/28/2015; ZA Pat.201305898, 4/30/2014; AU Pat.2112204152, 8/17/2017, William M. Moeny

2011     Pulsed Electric Rock Drilling Apparatus with Non-Rotating Bit and Directional Control, US Pat.8,172,006, 5/8/2012; ZA Pat.201102185, 12/28/2011; AU Pat.2009288327, 3/23/2016; CA Pat.CA2771475, 4/3/2018, William M. Moeny

2011     Pressure Pulse Fracturing System, US Pat.8,083,008, 12/27/2011, William M. Moeny

2009     Portable Electrocrushing Drill, US Pat.7,527,108, 5/5/2009, William M. Moeny

2008     Pulsed Electric Rock Drilling Apparatus, US Pat.7,416,032, 08/28/2008, and US Pat.7,530,406 5/12/2009, William M. Moeny and Gilman Hill

2008     Virtual Electrode Mineral Particle Disintegrator, US Pat.7,384,009, 6/10/2008; CA Pat. 2873152, 12/24/2019, William M. Moeny

2001     A New Crowbar System for the Protection of High Power Gridded Tubes and Microwave Devices, S. G. E. Pronko and T. E. Harris, Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Vacuum Electronics Conference, 2001, Noordwijk, the Netherlands

2000     The Performance of the 8.4 MW Modulator/Regulator Power Systems for the Electron Cyclotron Heating Facility Upgrade at DIII-D, S. G. E. Pronko, et. al., Proceedings of the 14th Topical Meeting on Technology of Fusion Energy, Oct. 2000, Park City, Utah

2000     US, Linear Aperture Pseudospark Switch, US Pat. 6,104,022, 8/15/2000, Chris M. Young, William M. Moeny

2000     US, Pulse Forming X-Ray Laser, US Pat. 6,026,099, 2/15/2000, Chris M. Young, William M. Moeny

1997     Curry, Randy D., Moeny, William  M., Curry,  AE Rodriguez, and Juan Elizondo, Development of a Barium-free High Temperature Cesium Tacitron, 11th IEEE International Pulsed Power Conference, 1997

1993     Megajoule Pulsed Power Experiments for Plasma Blasting Mining Applications, S. Pronko, et. al., Proceedings of the 9th IEEE Pulsed Power Conference, 1993, Albuquerque, New Mexico

1991     8 kJ/s High Frequency Capacitor Charging Power Supply Using Parallel Inverters, B. E. Strickland, et. al., Proceedings of the 8th IEEE Pulsed Power Conference, 1991, San Diego, California

“This (RePED) technology would be transformational to the energy industry.  Recent research has shown that high-speed drilling could increase geothermal power deployment by 50 GW and could similarly impact geothermal deployment in thermal energy markets.”

Katherine Young
NREL Geothermal Laboratory Program Manager

Our Team

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Tim Roark

President

Tim Roark has been President of Tetra Corporation since 2017, and served as Vice President from 2014 - 2017.  Prior to that, he was Director of Operations for Boeing DES from 2006-2014.  He is an accomplished project manager with a Master of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of New Mexico.  He also has a Master of Business Administration from Regis University.

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William Moeny

Chief Scientist

After receiving his Master of Science degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Bill worked as a research scientist for the Navy in California, and the Air Force Weapons Laboratory in Albuquerque, NM.  In 1977, Bill and two others formed Tetra Corporation as a small new-product development corporation, developing new mining and drilling equipment based on their proprietary technology.  Bill has authored - individually and jointly - over 70 patents.  

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STEVEN PRONKO

Chief Engineer

Steven has over 30 years of experience in pulsed power and power electronic technology development, system design, and technical management.  He was the manager of Directed Energy R&D for Raytheon Missile Systems, held several senior technical management positions at General Atomics in Nuclear Fusion and Electromagnetic Systems, was the head of Electrical Systems Engineering at Archimedes Technology Group, and held engineering positions at Maxwell Laboratories.  While at Maxwell, Steven led the development of pulsed power applications in rock fracturing and mining.  Steven has a BSEE, emphasis in Pulsed Power Technology.