Pulse Generator for Impact lonization Triggering in Thyristors

Fast HVgenorators are wldoly used fn many lndustrlal and sclentlflc appllcatlons lncludlng partlcle accelerators. Hlstorlcally, tho dominant swltchlng components for beam transfer at CERN were thyratronswlth allassoclated complex trlggering/blaslng/heatlngrecently Jolned by the risk of approachlng obsolescance. Based on recent communlcatlons there ls a promlslng alternative based on standard lndustrlal thyrlstors trlggered by an Impact lonlzatlon (II) process.The maln challenge Is the need of fast pulse generator wlthhigh output voltage (more than double of the statlc breakdown voltage ofthe stack to be trlggered) wlth ultraafast slew rate > 1kV/ns. Due to parasltlc capacltance of the thyrlstors (-100's of pF), the generator must provide current necessary to charge thls parasltlc capacltance wlth kV/ns slew rate (potentlally up to > 1kA). We proposo a generator based on ultra-boosted HV SIC MOS translstors followed by a fast Marx generator with small thyrlstors trlggered In II mode. We apply up to > 600V of gate boostlng overvoltage to accelerate SIC MOS commutatlon time by a factor of up to 36 compared datasheet. We such achleved sub-ns switchlng on
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1.7 kV rated SIC MOS generatlng > 1.3 kV pulse wlth > 2 kVlns slew rate whlch ls used to trlgger II process In thyristor swltches in the MARX generator further ampllfylng output voltage and lts slew rate. Our solutlon ls uslng cheap COTS components andprovlde promlslng prellmlnary results with > 11kV peak voltage and > 30 kV/ns slew rate.