Diode Opening Switch Based Nanosecond High Voltage Pulse Generators for Biological and Medical Applications

Studies of short (few ns) pulse cell electroperturbation require high-voltage nanosecond pulses delivered to low-impedance (10 Omega) electroporation cuvette loads. Here we present two pulse generators for these applications. The generators comprise of three stages of pulse modulation: an LC resonant stage switched by IGBT/MOSFET; a magnetic pulse compression stage; and a diode opening switch output stage. The all-solid-state design results in reproducible pulses and reliable, long-life operation. Pulses produced by the LC resonant stage are compressed using nonlinear properties of the magnetic material. The compressed pulses are fed to the diode opening switch, which is constructed by series and parallel connecting ordinary automotive rectifying diodes. Two versions of the pulse generator are described: The first version is capable of generating 20 ns wide, 4.5 kV amplitude pulses of 20 Hz repetition rate. A second version generates 5 ns, 7.5 kV amplitude pulses into the same 10 Omega cuvette load.