Power Supply Chain with Series Insulation Structure for High Voltage Marx Pulse Generator

Insulation power supply (IPS) for multiple switches is a key issue for solid-state pulse generators (SSPG). The existing parallel structure for IPS is short of insulation similarity, which results in low insulation utilization ratio (IUR) and limited adjustability. Here we propose a power supply chain (PSC) with series insulation structure. The insulation circumstance of PSC maintains the same for each stage, which increases the minimum IUR to almost 90%, compared to the existing parallel structures. The proposed PSC requires purely diodes, capacitors and inductors to achieve IPS for switches, thus avoiding the customized cost and enhancing insulation adjustability. After analyzing the working principle of PSC, we evaluate the performance of PSC from the perspective of power supply and insulation. Finally, an 8-staged Marx SSPG prototype is developed to examine the compatibility of PSC and the protection circuit for PSC is implemented. The withstand voltage of PSC can be easily adjusted within 14kV according to the number of diodes. The PSC does not require external control signals and does not interfere with gate driving synchronization or load waveforms, which offers a new solution of IPS for compact Marx generators designed at nanosecond scale.