Compact multi-level high-voltage power supply for vacuum applications

A low ripple, compact, high-voltage DC power supply suitable for vacuum system applications is proposed. The design proposed in this paper applies multi-leveling of the Greinacher circuit. By multi-leveling the outputs of several stages the overall ripple and voltage drop are reduced significantly. In addition, the design is simple, does not require additional components and can be implemented without changing the low voltage side of the supply. Both the simulated and measured results show that the proposed power supply topology, when fully loaded, gives a great reduction in voltage drop while maintaining the ripple to less than 1%. As an example the design of a 36kV system, with a 430W load is presented.