Development of battery powered 100 kV dc power supply

The increased interest in pulsed power field applications has generated the need for development of compact and remotely operated chargers driven by rechargeable batteries. With this objective, a compact and portable dc to dc Converter has been developed which has an output rating of 100 kV, 0.4 mA. The high voltage generation scheme uses a hybrid approach. The overall idea behind implementation of hybrid concept is to optimize voltage upliftment with suitable techniques for maximizing power delivered per unit volume. The proposed converter provides this feature and uses flyback converter in association with Cockcroft-Walton Multiplier [M. Jullian, Cockcroft-Walton Multiplier Optimum Design Guide V2.0, August 2005 (http//www.blazelabes.com)] for the generation of 100 kV dc from 12 V dc source, i.e., normal battery. In the first stage 12 V dc is modulated/ chopped into series of high frequency pulses by pulse width modulator and then increased in level up to 16 kVpp by step up flyback transformer. Further by using n stage half wave series Cockcroft-Walton multiplier the voltage is stepped up to the level of 100 kV. As switching device, state of the art metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor has been used. The obtained voltage multiplier cascade efficiency is 82.64%, whereas overall power conversion efficiency of the charging power supply is 85.47%. The control unit has been fiber optically isolated from high voltage unit due to safety consideration. The presented article explores complete design and development approach of compact and portable 100 kV dc power supply which can be used for a variety of applications such as x-ray generation, ion implantation, charge particle acceleration, radio isotope production, etc. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.