A unique approach in the design of power supply for Polarimeter

A Polarimeter requires three levels of voltages, a high voltage for the lamp ignition, a medium voltage for maintaining the arc, and a low voltage for control circuits. All these three voltage levels must be electrically isolated. The high voltage pulse must be provided for a specific time period and the medium level voltage must be must be very stable to provide stable light emissions. A power supply with the above characteristics for a Sodium lamp has been designed, constructed and tested. Design procedures, test results and comparison data from previous works will be presented. A cost analysis will be performed to demonstrate the affordability of the power supply.