Physique & industrie's expertise encompasses many of the different technologies needed to build Pulsed Power Generator. Physique & industrie can find the best technology that suit your need, by selecting the right topology and the best switching device (spark gap, MOSFET, IGBT, Thyristor, ...). We particularly master the design of High Power Pulse Generator based on solid-state switches, which combines low cost, high reliability and high performances (see paper on "Solid State Pulsed Power Systems").
The following table shows few different technologies used in Physique & industrie's Pulse Generators and a summary of some of their typical characteristics.

Magnetic Compression Pulse Generator

The main difficulty in a pulsed power supplies lies in the commutation of very intense currents within the shortest times. Conventional Pulse Generator uses an active commutator in which flows the same current than in the load. Consequently, the output power is limited by the commutation switch capability. One generally use plasma switches (thyratrons) which lifetime and repetition rate is relatively limited.

Thanks to a Magnetic Compression network, we can go beyond this limit, and be able to generate high power pulses up to 1 TeraWatt in tens of nanoseconds, with pretty high repetition rate.
The principle is to generate a long pulse with a classical switch (fast thyristors) and apply it at the input of a multistage magnetic compression circuit (as shown in the next figure). Each stage of magnetic compression will reduce the time duration of the pulse, increasing therfore the power of the pulse (with a factor from 2 to 10).
A compression stage is build with a capacitor and a saturable inductor. The saturable inductor acts as a switch, "off" when it is unsaturated and "on" when it is saturated.

Magnetic Compression Generator

Magnetic Compression waveforms

Blumlein Pulse Generator

The idea of this pulse generator is to charge a Line slowly with a high voltage DC power supply, and to discharge it quickly in the Load, by means of a very fast switch made of power MOSFETs mounted in a series/parallel assembly.

The length of the pulse is equal to 2 times the propagation time of the line (if the load matches the characteristic impedance of the line). The advantage of a Blumlein compared to a simple line is to deliver to the load the same voltage as the charging voltage. (In a simple line, the output voltage is half of the charging voltage)
The typical impedance of a Blumlein is from 3 to 50 Ohms.

Blumlein Generator

Blumlein Generator output waveform

Physique & indutrie manufacture Blumlein generators on request.

Pulse transformer Generator

This kind of generators consist of a high efficiency low leakage inductance pulse transformer, which primary coils are supplied by a parallel association of many high power solid state switches (IGBTs). It is well suited for pulse power up to 10MW with a duty cycle up to 5% and a mean power up to 20kW.

Thanks to a particular patented geometry, our pulse transformer have an exceptionally low leakage inductance, that permit to obtain rise time less than 1µs for a 100kV-100A pulses.

Pulse Transformer Generator

Pulse Transformer Generator output waveform

Our 3PIxx-xx High Voltage Pulse Supplies are specially designed for Plasma Immersed Ion Implantation (PIII)

Marx Adder Pulse Generator

The idea of a Marx Generator is to charge the energy storage of each stages in parallel with a relatively low voltage (1kV to 6kV), and discharge them by means of active switches in series in the load. The output volatge is then equal to the charging voltage multiplied by the number of stages. The serie inductance of this type of generators is quite low, as a result the rise time and fall time of the output pulses are less than 1µs.
Furthermore the pulse repetition rate can be more than 20kHz for short pulses, and the pulse can be very long (several ms).

Marx Generator

Marx Generator output waveform

Resonant Charge Transformer Generator

This type of generator transfert the energy stored in the tank capacitor to the inductor before to be transfered to the load via a transformer. This makes it particularly suitable for capacitive or non-linear loads.

Resonant Charge Transformer Generator

Resonant Charge Transformer Generator output waveform

Applications

High voltage pulsed power based technologies are rapidly emerging as a key to efficient and flexible use of electrical power for many industrial applications.
Here is a list of some pulsed power applications Physique & industrie has been working on:

• Lasers supply : Excimer, CO2 , Nitrogen, Copper Vapor
• Pulsed Electric Field Sterilization of Liquids by electroporation
• Electric Pulse Rock Crushing
• Plasma Immersed Ion Implantation (PIII)
• Klystron / Magnetron supply
• Corona Plasma discharge oxidation for sterilization and de-pollution
• Electromagnetic forming (or Electroforming)
• Fruits & vegetables juice extraction
• Particles accelerators

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