A New High Voltage High Frequency Power Supply Using Tesla Transformer

Tesla air core transformer has simple insulation structure and can endure higher voltage than the core transformer. Yet its low coupling coefficient and large leakage inductance exert a negative influence on improving its transform ratio. In this study, a new high frequency, high pulsed voltage generator is established. It is composed of an H-bridge inverter and a Tesla transformer. The stray capacitance and the leakage inductance of the Tesla transformer are manipulated to compose a resonant circuit so as to enlarge its output voltage by resonance. In a reasonable design, the resonant frequency of the Tesla transformer will be below 100 KHz, which the inverter with Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) can reaches. By comparing the transformer model and the mutual inductance model, the relations between resonant inductance, equivalent capacitance and resonant frequency are established. With the derived equations, the Self- and mutual- inductances calculated by finite element method can be directly used in the analysis of the resonance. Finally a prototype is designed and tested. The testing results have proved the obtained relations. The transformer´s fundamental transform ratio is 43, and its tested output can reach 211 times input in resonant operation.