Operation of 20 Hz Marx generators on a common electrolytic load in an electroporation chamber

Author

Schultheiss, C. ; Sack, M. ; Bluhm, H. ; Mayer, H.-G. ; Kern, M. ; Lutz, W.

Author_Institution

Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH, Germany

Volume

1

fYear

2003

fDate

15-18 June 2003

Firstpage

669

Abstract

Electroporation of a large amount of biological material is subject of an industrial development project with the goals to save energy and to avoid disadvantages coming up with thermal cell denaturation. Electroporation takes place in a water-fruit suspension with embedded electrodes. Electric polarization effects are responsible for the formation of irreversible openings in the cell membranes. Pulsed high electric fields in the order of 10 kV/cm are produced by means of two 7-stage Marx generators (350 kV output voltage, pulse length 1.5 /spl mu/s, 2 GW, repetition rate 20 Hz). Due to the need of industrial-scale throughput it is necessary to operate several free running generators simultaneously being connected to one electroporation chamber. The paper describes the experiences obtained during development and testing of the device.

Keywords

cellular biophysics; electrodes; polarisation; pulse generators; pulsed power technology; 1.5 mus; 2 GW; 20 Hz; 350 kV; Marx generators; cell membranes; electric polarization effects; electrolytic load; electroporation chamber; embedded electrodes; pulsed electric fields; water-fruit suspension; Biological cells; Biological materials; Biomembranes; Capacitors; Cells (biology); Electrodes; Microorganisms; Polarization; Throughput; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Pulsed Power Conference, 2003. Digest of Technical Papers. PPC-2003. 14th IEEE International

Conference_Location

Dallas, TX, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7915-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PPC.2003.1277798

Filename

1277798