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This paper presents a buck-boost converter-based bipolar pulse generator, which is able to generate bipolar exponential pulses across a resistive load. The concept of the proposed approach depends on operating the involved buck-boost converters in discontinuous current conduction mode with high-voltage gain and enhanced efficiency. A full design of the pulse generator and its passive components is presented to ensure generating the pulses with the desired specifications (rise time, pulse width, and pulse magnitude) for a given load resistance and input dc voltage. In case of moderate pulsed output voltages (i.e. few of kV), one module of the presented bipolar generator can be employed. While in case of high-voltage pulsed output, multi-module version can be employed, where each module is fed from an isolated dc source and their outputs are connected in series. Simulation models for the proposed approach are built to elucidate their performance in case of one-module as well as multi-module based generator. Finally, a scaled-down prototype for one-module of buck-boost converter-based bipolar pulse generator is implemented to validate the proposed concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]