Title :
Compact pulse generator for nanosecond electroperturbation of biological cells
Author :
Gundersen, M.A. ; Gu, X. ; Kuthi, A. ; Behrend, M. ; Vernier, P.T.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng.-Electrophys., Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Abstract :
The design of a compact, 8 kV pulse generator with subnanosecond rise time is presented. The pulse generator is used for the study of biological systems. The load is a cuvette with 1 mm electrode gap, having an impedance of about 10 ohms. The design is based on a capacitive PFN (pulse forming network) with distributed capacitance and printed circuit trace inductance. A small atmospheric pressure air spark gap is used as the switching device, and is overvolted to achieve subnanosecond switch rise time. The resonant charging circuit employs four parallel 100 A MOSFET switches and is capable of repetitively delivering 8 kV to the PFN within 350 ns. Proper balancing of the primary transformer currents in the four MOSFETs is essential for reliable operation and will be discussed.
Keywords :
bioelectric phenomena; capacitance; cellular biophysics; electric impedance; electrodes; field effect transistor switches; perturbation techniques; power transformers; printed circuits; pulse generators; reliability; spark gaps; 100 A; 8 kV; MOSFET switches; atmospheric pressure; biological cells; capacitive pulse forming network; distributed capacitance; electrode gap; impedance; nanosecond electroperturbation; primary transformer currents; printed circuit trace inductance; pulse generator; reliability; resonant charging circuit; spark gap; subnanosecond switch rise time; switching device; Biological cells; Biological systems; Capacitance; Electrodes; Impedance; Nanobioscience; Printed circuits; Pulse circuits; Pulse generation; Switches;
Conference_Titel :
Power Modulator Symposium, 2004 and 2004 High-Voltage Workshop. Conference Record of the Twenty-Sixth International
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-8586-1
DOI :
10.1109/MODSYM.2004.1433655
