Solid-state fast voltage compensator for pulsed power applications requiring constant AC power consumption

This paper proposes a novel topological solution for pulsed power converters based on capacitor-discharge topologies, integrating a Fast Voltage Compensator which allows an operation at constant power consumption from the utility grid. This solution has been retained as a possible candidate for the CLIC project under study at CERN, which requires more than a thousand synchronously-operated klystron modulators producing a total pulsed power of almost 40 GW. The proposed Fast Voltage Compensator is integrated in the modulator such that it only has to treat the capacitor charger current and a fraction of the charging voltage, meaning that its dimensioning power and cost are minimized. This topology can be used to improve the AC power quality of any pulsed converters based on capacitor-discharge concept. A prototype has been built and exploited to validate the operating principle and demonstrate the benefits of the proposed solution.