6 kV/ 60 A/2 MHz high voltage inverter for gas discharge laser without step-up transformer

A 6 kV, 60 A, 2 MHz AC power supply for driving high peak and short pulse CO₂ lasers with a silent discharge has been developed. The developed power supply has a full-bridge inverter that combines four switches that connect power MOSFET with 6 in series and 4 in parallel. The inverter directly switches the high voltage of 6 kV DC, and converts the voltage directly into 2 MHz AC. The developed power supply can output much higher electric power than a conventional one, because it doesn´t have a step-up transformer with a large leakage inductance. A peak laser power of 20 kW, 7 times a conventional one, and a laser pulse width of 1 microsecond, 1/10 of a conventional one, was obtained by using this power supply for silent discharge excitation type CO₂ lasers