Low-Ripple High-Voltage DC Generation Using a Serially Segmented Multiphase Voltage Multiplier

Abstract

This paper presents a voltage multiplier topology that is suitable for a low-ripple high-voltage dc generation. The topology has a number of voltage multipliers connected in series and driven at different phases. Compared to a single-phase multiplier, an n-phase voltage multiplier has an output ripple that is smaller by n times. Since the ripple frequency is simultaneously increased by n times, a simple RC lowpass filter further reduces the ripple amplitude by n times, resulting in ripple reduction of n2 times. We demonstrate the ripple reduction of the proposed topology using a 6 V-to-800 V power supply with a 16-stage four-phase bipolar voltage multiplier. The output ripple frequency is eight times the converter’s switching frequency and the ripple amplitude is significantly smaller than the conventional single-phase voltage multiplier.