Abstract
XRAM (MARX spelt back words) is currently a very important circuit for high current pulse generators. In our previous studies, an XRAM-like circuit was proposed based on multiple pulse transformer modules and a capacitor connected in parallel. Compared with the traditional XRAM circuit, the same number of inductive energy storage modules can be used to generate higher current pulses. This circuit is also capable to recover the residual energy and generate repetitive high-current pulses. However, this circuit topology requires more power electronic switches (three IGBT switches per pulse transformer module). In order to reduce the number of switches, by adding two IGBT switches in the capacitor module, a new modular XRAM-like circuit with reduced switches (one IGBT switch per pulse transformer module) is proposed in this paper. The change of the circuit topology makes the capacitor discharge the primary inductors of the pulse transformer in series during the residual energy recovery stage, instead of the parallel discharge in the previous circuit. This requires the closing time of the IGBT switch in each pulse transformer module ahead of the discharge start time of the capacitor. Working process of the proposed circuit was described in detail and simulations of a 12-module circuit were carried out to verify the circuit operation. Finally, the preliminary experimental results of a two-module laboratory prototype are presented. The results confirm the theoretical analysis and show the validity of the converter scheme.
Highlights
High-current pulsed power technologies have been applied in the field of Electromagnetic Launch (EML) such as electrothermal-chemical guns and railguns [1]–[3], which are based on the conversion of a low-power, long-time input to a high-power, high-current, and short-time output
This circuit topology requires more power electronic switches, which requires more synchronous control signals
This paper proposes a new modular XRAM-like circuit topology based on pulse transformers
Summary
High-current pulsed power technologies have been applied in the field of Electromagnetic Launch (EML) such as electrothermal-chemical guns and railguns [1]–[3], which are based on the conversion of a low-power, long-time input to a high-power, high-current, and short-time output. The recovery of the residual energy is achieved by discharging the capacitor in a positive direction to the parallel primary windings This circuit topology requires more power electronic switches (three IGBT switches per pulse transformer module), which requires more synchronous control signals. Compared with the circuit in [18], by making the capacitor discharge the primary inductors of the pulse transformer in series during the residual energy recovery phase, the proposed circuit is more suitable for the modular design with reduced IGBT switches. It can be inferred from the charging phase that when the internal resistance of the primary inductors is high, the charging process must be fast, otherwise the energy loss on the inductor coils will be very large This requires that the primary power supply must have a higher power, especially when there are more pulse transformer modules. To reduce the power of the primary power supply, it is necessary to select primary inductors with lower internal resistance, such as superconducting inductors
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