Solid-State Pulsed Power Modulator With Fast Rising/Falling Time and High Repetition Rate for Pockels Cell Drivers

Abstract

This paper proposes a solid-state pulsed power modulator (PPM) with fast rising/falling time and high repetition rates to drive pockels cells. Since the proposed circuit is based on the modular structure using silicon carbide (SiC) metal–oxide silicon field-effect transistors ( MOSFET s) for bypass devices as well as for main switches, it can achieve fast switching speed and high reliability. In addition, by a control scheme employing the voltage difference, the proposed circuit can accomplish a high repetition rate and short pulsewidth. Design and implementation of 1.8-kV PPMs with repetition rate of 1 MHz and rising/falling time below 6 ns are presented. Also, important issues for the practical use of the SiC-based PPM are discussed. Experimental results from the developed PPMs are shown to verify the proposed works.