SI-THYRISTOR AS A HIGH POWER SWCHI NG DEVICE FOR FAST HIGH
VOLTAGE PULSE GENERATORS
Shinji Ibuka, Kazunari Saito, AkiraY at0, KentaHanibuh, Koichi Yasuoka, and Shozo Ishii Tokyo bthk Of T h l ~ , 2-12-1, O-dcayama, Megurdcy Tokyo 152, J w NaohiroShi Toyo Electric M@. Co., Ltd., Kanu-soM Yamakmty, Kanagam 242, Japan ABSTRACT C- . on of SI-thyrisos as a fbt closing switch for puked power application was examined Since the SI-thyrkh~ employd in ths study are normally on+&&, a negative bias voltage, is necessary at the gate electrodeto establish hold-offstate. As a mmquene, list aurentrise rate can be stmngly expected A low nmpedance gate driving Circuit built with MOSFETs improved turn-on characteristics remark&@. By adjusting anode voltagedistriion and gate timing mefidly, sfxked SI-thymto~ were SllcceSSfully operated to make tumon. Thehighest Ndt obtained in this study is55kA/ps. A M highvoltage pulse genemior with mqp%c pulse compression scheme was built by using stacked SI-thyristors. To obtain faster high voltage p u l s e , a x t s s . on l i ne as an additional d t for pulse dmpemg was employed. in c;lructure of n-regm havea lower on- voltageand a shorter tum-on time. 954 0-78034214-3/97/$10.00 0 1997 IEEE +HV I I I I I I I m - ....... . -24V & Fig. 1. Testing Circuit. time [50ns/div] Fig. 2. Turnan anode voltage ontheloads. NPTtype one. The PTtypedevice al so has the laver onatate &stivity. The anodevoltagesofthe anode shortedpTtypedevicz weremeasured by myhg the load fkom 0.352to lOOwZ as shown inFig.2. Thepeak current of 4kA was obtained ibr the0.352load Thetum+ntimeof awdevoltageforthe~lOOkWloadis~1oonS. Asthel oadresi sti Vi ty~thetum- on timebecomes longer. This ~~ in tenpod am& voltage behaviors is due to the effect of i nstucti ve voltage component producedbya"linductance of the device. Since the Udt increases, the i hui ve voltage component becomes comjwable to theresistive one which exactly de&the turnan c k m a of the devi ce. It appeared that the IT type SI-thyristors were suitable for pulsed payer apjiication, Then, we compared the turn-on chamte&ics ofthe anodeshorted type device and thereverse conductive type one, which were both the IT type. Theresults showed that thel atter have a little bit better quality as a jBst tu" devi ce. When the load mistivity was chosen as 0.352, a typical t q d change in a load current and an anodecarhodevoltage for the reverse oonductiw device is shown in Fig.3. The maximumvalue of Ndt reaches to 20Wps. Since the polarity of current directon changes h m positive to negative and vice versain a low mpdance capacitor dixhrge, the reverse ormchxtive SI-thyristor is suitable as a pulsed paver switchng device. time [ 1 OOnddiv] Fig. 3. Tuna characte&ia of the single reverse conductive PT typeSI-thyristor 955 SERIES CONNECI'ION FOR HIGH VOLTAGE OPERATION High voltagepulse genaators to payer gas dischargeloads are r q u d to havetheoutput voltageat least more than1OkV. A single SI-thynstor cannot be operated at such ahigh voltage. Then the devi ces must beconnected in Seriesto generate a hi@ voltagepulse. T uma c m ' 'a of fivestacked SI-thyrkto~~ connected in series were examinedby usingthe testing circuit similar to that show in Fig.1. When thedevi ces are connected in series, voltages betwen the anode and cathode must beeve@ di str i i on each device. A resistor of 2Msz uas connected to each device in parallel for applied voltages to be di vi ded equally. Gate timing is also a crucial parameter to determine turnan property. Fivegate driving units connected to the gate electrodes supplied gate drive voltagepulses mdependently. Wecontrollled the timing for application of fivegate voltagepulses to each devicesimul~withinseveralnanosecondsmr. In t he case of stackedfiveancde shortdJ %Ttype SI-IS for a 5.552 res'lstiveload, the maximuml ate ofcunrent rise was 1OSkAlps and the peak current was 2.4kA at the c- g voltageof 15kV. As amparing with the data of thesingle clewe, the rate df3xasdbecaUse of residual i nductance increas due to series c o d o n Wethen hied to characterize fivestacked reverse conducthg "Ttype SI-thynstors. Eight -conductor rodswereplacedanxlndthe stackeddevicesto constitute laver circuit i nductance which was reduced to about 26nH. When the c har pg voltagewas 15kV, a l d current to the resistiveload of 0.6Q rose at the r;l teof 5Wm and reached 11.5kAat its peakas shown inFig.4. Fig. 4. T una c w ' 'a of thefivestacked revem conductive Nl T typeSI-thyr&o~~. GATE DRIVING CIECUIT Suflicient amount of carries must be in- in a wy short timeinto depletion region h m thegate for fast " o n operation. M o r e the gate driving circuit has to bedesigned to makeimpedance as low as possible. We designed andbuilt a new gate driving circuir wirh low i"a shown 111 Fig.3 by m g MOSFETs wlllch can supply a fast Ugh current pulse to the gate electrode. Two uni ts ofFive MOSFETs connected in parallel were placed closed to the gate terminal Electric charges are stored in a low impedance chip-shapd capacitor of 47@. T una gate pulsed voltages were varied from 0 to 200V. Typical anale voltagewaveforms of tman phase for the anode showSI-thynsto~~ withthe load resistor of 100kQ are summanzed in Fig.6. In the figure, temporal changeof turna voltages at the anode dri ven by a conventional and the newly designed @e driving circuit are shown. When the gafe pulsed voltagew lOV, the turnan ti me Of 24n~ was OMained 956 I _ -24 Fig. 5. Newly caesigned gate driving circuit. n ?- - - - conventional(Vg=6 tc, - new(Vg=6V) Q) - -new(Vg=lOOV) 0 + +-I Y 3 time [20ns/div] Fig. 6. T man anode voltagecaependence on thegatedri vi ngc. PULSED POWER GENERATOR SYSTEM FOR GAS LASERS In a pulsed gas laser, gas di sGharges are Usuauy powered by a voltagepulse withthe amplitude more than 20kV andthe less than 1OOns. To acOOmpl i Sh theseoutput parameters, it is still difficult for semiamductor power device aloneto beused for the M pulsed power gemator. Wemade a pulsed power genemr for gas lasers by means of SH-th4?l stors on a tri al basis. pulse compression scheme is employed to obtain WIr output voltagepulses. The designed and examin& chi t is Fig.7. Fivestacked SI-thyristors switch theE-invecsion Circuit which comprises two apci to~~ of 32nF. The theci mi t charges a pzhng capator of 16nF vi a a magnetic switch made of amorpholls more. When the shorted load is employed, w d o m of turnan vokige, arrent flowing in the SI-thymiors, output voltageof the LC-invecsion circuit, and termi nal voltageof the peakmg Capacitor are shown h Fig.8. The E& of voltageriseaf 7711s and the output voltageof 22.2kV wm obtained, that satisfies therequrred voltagemndition for pulsed gas l asers. Load Fig. 7. pulsed power gemator withSI-thyr&ors for gas lasers. 957 aJ B 10 d 0 I B %lo * 7 ,a -20 cl -2% time [2OOnsec/div] Fig. 8. Temporal chat.dctenstl . a ofthe pulsed generator for gas l aser. CONCLUSION T u c w a of the SI-thyristors isvery closeto the required switchingparameter as afast high power switch for pulse Opemng switchesby which di scharge circuit is tmml-off are necessatyto construct inductive energy stomgetype pulsedpower generators. F astt~un- oE cW cs of thedevice shouldbe examined in f i r- ture works. We believe that new concept of a semi coMduct orpaver~~wi l l becreat ed~mt hevi avpoi nt of pul sedpayer~~~0~. ~ ~ l i c a t i o m in the mediumpower RgiOIL The punchthrwghtype dai ces shavedthee rateof current rise. RECES [l] J.L. Hudg~ns and W.M Po-, High dddt Pulse Switching of Thynsbrs, I EEE Trans. on Power ElectronicS, V0l.E-2, [2] G.J. Rohwin, L.D. Roose, and W.M Po-, pul~ed Power C ~n f m, AIbuquerque NM, July 1995. [3] S. Ibuka, T.Mjlazawa, A.- and S.Ishlu, Fast High Voltage Pul se Generation with Nonlinear Transmission Line for High RepehtiveOperaton , lom IEEE Intemalional pul sed Power Codim, Albuquerque NM, July 1995. [4] S. I buka, M. Oluushi, T, YamaQ, K. Y m S.Ishu, and K.C. KO, Voltage AmpHcation EEi i of Nonlinear Transmission Lines for Fast High Voltage PulseGeneration, 1 l& I EEE l ntemati onal Pul sed Paver Confkrence, Bal ti more MD, June 1997. p ~ . 143-148, 1987.