All-solid-state bipolar pulsed generator based on linear transformer driver and push-pull circuit.

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• All-solid-state linear transformer drivers (LTDs) are crucial for high-voltage pulsed power applications.
• Existing LTD generators have limitations in producing bipolar rectangular waves, especially with microsecond pulse widths, due to significant reverse overshoot.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate a novel bipolar LTD circuit topology for irreversible electroporation.
• To achieve bipolar rectangular wave outputs with microsecond pulse widths and suppressed overshoot.

Main Methods:

• A push-pull circuit-based bipolar LTD topology was designed, featuring four push-pull branches per primary winding for bipolar output.
• Resistor-capacitor-diode snubbers were integrated with a short-circuited winding to mitigate forward and reverse overshoot.
• Experimental validation was performed on a single-stage LTD module and a 12-stage LTD generator.

Main Results:

• The developed LTD modules successfully generated bipolar rectangular pulses with variable parameters.
• For pulse widths of 100 ns to 1 µs, a maximum output voltage of 5.74 kV was achieved with a 29.1 ns rise time and 2.9% reverse overshoot.
• For pulse widths of 1-8 µs, a maximum output voltage of 2.93 kV was achieved with a 24.3 ns rise time and 11.3% reverse overshoot.

Conclusions:

• The proposed bipolar LTD circuit topology effectively enables the generation of microsecond-duration bipolar rectangular pulses.
• The design successfully suppresses overshoot, enhancing the performance of LTD generators for applications requiring precise pulse shaping, such as irreversible electroporation.