Solid-State Bipolar Linear Transformer Driver Using Inductive Energy Storage

There have already a lot of circuit topologies for pulsed power generators using semiconductor switches. In this article, a novel circuit topology concept that can generate bipolar pulses based on linear transformer driver (LTD) topology is presented. Different from traditionally capacitive energy storage (CES) method, we utilize magnetic core as inductive energy storage (IES) medium to accumulate inductive energy before releasing pulses. The repetitive bipolar pulsed power generator is capable of operating in high repetition without reset circuit, because positive magnetization and negative magnetization can lead the magnetic core always back to initial state after every period. In this article, a three-stage laboratory prototype of bipolar IES-based LTD is designed and assembled using six existed CES-based LTD modules, which can generate similar to 2.4 kV bipolar peak pulses, 55 ns pulsewidth on a 150 Omega resistive load with charging voltage of 80 V. Finally, this proposed three-stage LTD is evaluated under burst mode to verified the high repetition capability of this bipolar IES-based LTD. As a result, this generator can operate at repetitive frequency of 400 kHz without reset.