A high voltage nanosecond pulser with variable pulse width and pulse repetition frequency control for nonequilibrium plasma applications

Summary form only given. Non-thermal or non-equilibrium plasmas have been utilized for a wide variety of applications related to advanced materials processing, Vacuum Ultraviolet (VUV) production, biomedical applications, new materials synthesis, surface decontamination, thin-film production and basic plasma science. While both modeling and experimental studies of particular discharge methods and geometries have been conducted it is often difficult to gain a full understanding the complex discharge processes due to the limited range of operation of the (HV) nanosecond pulse driver. This is especially true if one wants to investigate the transition from non-thermal to thermal plasma associated with streamer and or leader formation in spark breakdowns. However, there is significant difficultly in creating a HV nanosecond pulser that can operate over the range of experimental values of interest and most pulser technologies have limited or fixed range in pulse width, output voltage and pulse repetition frequency which are not adequate for careful experimental studies. Eagle Harbor Technologies, Inc. has developed a solid state nanosecond power supply which has significantly advanced the state-of-the-art in pulser technology allowing flexibility in delivering high voltage (0-50 kV), high power (0-10 MW peak and 0-2 kW average), and high frequency (0-2 MHz) variable pulse width (20ns-1000ns) nanosecond pulses which can be utilized for low temperature plasma creation including driving DBD discharges. The power supply technologies can provide an essential test bed for developing a comprehensive characterization of non-equilibrium plasma in both DBD and spark breakdowns. Details on the nanosecond pulser output performance under several load configurations will be presented.