Design and development of microcontroller driven, portable, low-cost HVDC source

Cockcroft-Walton voltage multipliers have been a source of high voltage dc supply for diverse applications from the past many years. Control and automation of HVDC source is important from safety as well as protection point of view. The authors present a microprocessor controlled HVDC source, which is developed in their laboratory, which can protect itself from over currents during breakdown and also provide automatic safety measures to save operators from accidents. Instrumentation related to the controlled source has been presented. Simulation of breakdown has also been performed using PSpice software. Control of the Cockcroft-Walton input along with over current protection has been demonstrated.