Compact pulsed power generators for industrial applications

Summary form only given, as follows. Summary form only given as follows. Compact pulsed power generators using high-power semiconductor switches are being developed at Nagaoka University of Technology, in collaboration with partners from Japanese industry. The switching units involved in these studies are the most up-to-date semiconductor switches such as static-induction thyristor (SI-thyristor), insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), high-power metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), and semiconductor opening switch (SOS). The expected application areas are pulsed gas laser, flue-gas treatment, high-energy accelerator, and biomedical development. A very compact pulsed power generator using a single SI-thyristor as the main switch is developed for output parameters of 15 W, 20 A, 100 ns, and 2 kHz. It is driven by a 12 V DC power supply. It is designed for applications on automobile such as exhaust gas treatment. A stacked MOSFET switch has been developed and tested. Commercially available MOSFET units (1 kV, 10 A) were used to form the stack of 8 in series and 6 in parallel. Each unit is triggered by an optically coupled signal so that all units are controlled simultaneously by a common trigger circuit. Experimental results have shown that such a stacked MOSFET switch is capable of working under the voltage of 5 kV, turning on and off the load current of 100 A in /spl sim/30 ns, at the maximum repetition rate of 2 MHz. It is designed for applications to high-energy accelerators IGBTs and SOSs are used for different types of excimer laser drivers. The IGBT switch is combined with magnetic switches to generate pulsed output voltage of 28 kV at the repetition rate of 6 kHz. The generator using SOS as the main switch is more compact and has a potential for higher repetition rate.