A repetitive microsecond-pulse generator for plasma application

Pulsed discharge is a promising approach for producing non-thermal plasma at atmospheric pressure. Pulsed power generators vary widely in performance and should be chosen according to the application requirements. In this paper, a repetitive microsecond-pulse generator was constructed using a cascading of power modules, where all solid-state switches were considered as the key units. The generator was able to produce repetitive pulses with a peak voltage of 2 kV, a pulse duration of a few microseconds, and a pulse repetition frequency of 5 kHz at a 1000Ω resistive load. Output pulse voltage could be adjusted by varying ac input voltage. Both the pulse width and frequency could be controlled by changing the driving signal of the IGBT. In addition, this generator was successfully used in the plasma application.