Implementation of an economical and compact single MOSFET high voltage pulse generator

Abstract

The high voltage load applications need very compact generators for the production of fast rising high voltage pulses and are invited in many applications including plasma soft X-ray, ion beam, PEF technology and microwave generators. From the right beginning several technologies have been introduced, Pulse Forming Networks, up to Marx generators. This paper also presents such type of square pulse generator based on power semiconductor device which simplifies the size of the conventional pulse generators. The high electric field intensity square pulses varying in magnitudes in the range of kilovolts with ms to μs pulse widths have been successfully used in many research fields. The advancements in power semiconductor devices, such as power MOSFETs, IGBTs are becoming most suitable for high switching speed high voltage pulse generators. These semiconductor devices are more reliable to control high voltages and currents when implemented in typical circuits. The voltage and current capabilities are increased by connecting the power switches in series and parallel respectively which need aided circuit for protection, equal voltage distributions. This paper presents the design and implementation of such a compact, portable high voltage μs pulse generator based on single power MOSFETs thus avoiding auxiliary circuits. A single CoolMOS TM RF Power MOSFET IXZR08N120B is selected as main switch in this work to produce the high voltage square pulses and is triggered using the suitable high-speed driver DEIC420 with low jitter at higher frequencies. The designed high voltage pulse generator which has variable pulse widths ranging from 2μs to 200μs with a variable pulse magnitude of 1kV is implemented in our laboratory.