Solid State Pulsed Power Modulator With High Repetition Rate and Short Pulse Width for High-Speed Pulsed Lasers

Abstract

This paper proposes a modular pulsed power modulator (PPM) with a short pulse width and high repetition rate for pulsed lasers. The presented PPM is based on the modular structure to use semiconductor switches with low voltage ratings since these switches have fast switching speed which is an essential requirement to generate short pulses. In addition, to make a short gate signal which is also needed to generate short pulses, a gate driver circuit which applies positive and negative voltages asymmetrically is proposed. Moreover, a heatsink structure to minimize the parasitic capacitances is presented for the high repetition rate. Furthermore, a DC-DC converter for the modular PPM is developed, which connects transformers in parallel at the primary side to achieve voltage balance without any compensation circuit. Experimental results from a 5 kV PPM with the pulse width below 20 ns and repetition rate of 1 MHz are presented to verify the proposed works.