High voltage power supply with low power consumption for photomultiplier tubes

Abstract

In some applications, photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) are powered by battery based circuits, where the available energy is severely limited. The most simple approach to design high voltage power supplies (HVPS) for PMTs has considered resistive voltage dividers in order to bias the dynodes. However, this approach usually results in high power losses and, consequently, this undermines the PMT performance. In this work, the proposed solution is the use of a power circuit based on the forward converter connected to a transformer built with several secondary windings. Each secondary voltage is rectified and filtered to eliminate voltage ripple. Each dynode voltage is supplied by a rectified secondary voltage. The proposed topology provides low power consumption as well as low sensitivity of the PMT gain with respect to the dynode currents.