A fault analysis and design consideration of pulsed-power supply for high-power laser

According to the requirements of driving flashlamps, the design of a pulsed-power supply (PPS), based on capacitors as energy storage elements, is presented. Special consideration is given to some possible faults such as capacitor internal short-circuit, bus bar breakdown to ground, flashlamp sudden short or break (open circuit), and closing switch restrike in the preionization branch. These faults were analyzed in detail, and both fault current and voltage waveforms are shown through circuit simulation. Based on the analysis and computation undertaken, the pulsed-power system design and protection requirements are proposed. The preliminary experiments undertaken after circuit simulation demonstrated that the design of the PPS met the project requirements.