Wide bandgap switching devices for fusion reactor power supply systems

High voltage, high current power supplies are required to generate plasma in a tokamak. This equipment converts high voltage AC from the grid into both AC and DC energy sources. Recently, new switching devices based on wide bandgap semiconductors have emerged that could significantly improve the efficiency of these systems. This paper explores the benefits of using silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET power modules in the power supplies that operate the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). The case study for this work is the vertical stability (VS) coil and the neutral beam injection (NBI) power supplies. The analysis predicts that the efficiency of the VS and the NBI power supplies can be improved by up to 36 % and 66 %, respectively, by using these new components.