Capacitor current feedback for output filter damping in switched-mode magnet power supplies

In magnet power supplies for a particle accelerator system, a second-order low-pass filter is used to reduce the output current ripple content within specifications. The output filter must be properly damped in order to avoid any large amplification at the resonant frequency and large transient responses of voltages and currents at the step change of the line voltage. Conventionally, a series combination of resistance and capacitance is added in parallel with the filter capacitor to provide the required damping. This approach, however, requires a large DC-blocking capacitor which has to be several times larger than the filter capacitor. In this paper, a filter damping technique using capacitor current feedback is presented. The basic concept of the capacitor current feedback is established using a linear model of the converter involved, and then a sampled-data model of the converter is used to analyze the filter damping technique. The filter damping effect of the capacitor current feedback is verified experimentally