130 kV 130 A High voltage switching mode power supply for neutral beam plasma heating: design issues

The company JEMA has designed and manufactured two High Voltage Switching Mode Power Supplies (HVSMPS), rated at 130 kV dc and 130 A, each of which will feed the accelerator grids of two Positive Ion Neutral Injector (PINI) loads, to be installed at the Joint European Torus (EFDA-JET facility located at Culham, UK). The solution designed by JEMA includes two matching transformers which adapt the 36 kV of the JET AC power distribution network to the required 670 V at the secondary side. Additionally, such transformers provide a 30° phase shift which is required by a 30 000 A 12 pulse thyristor rectifier. The obtained and stabilised 650 V feed 120 IGBT invertors, which operate at 2778 Hz with modulated square waveform. Each invertor feeds a High Insulation High Frequency Transformer. The 120 transformers corresponding to one power supply are arranged in three oil filled tanks and provide the main insulation from the low voltage to the high voltage side. The square waveform obtained at the secondary of each transformer is rectified by means of a diode bridge. The connection in series of the 120 diode bridges provides the required 130 kV d.c. at the output. In order to protect the load, a redundant solid state crowbar has been designed. Such short circuiting device is composed of 26 Light Triggered Thyristors (LTTs), connected in series. Electrical simulations have been carried out in order to ensure that the system complies with the requirements of high accuracy and adequate protection of the load. The critical design of the High Voltage-High Frequency Transformers has also required electrostatic simulations of the electric field distribution