Solid state clipper diodes for high power modulators
Abstract
End-of-line solid state clipper diodes are essential to high power pulse modulators. These diodes are chosen to reduce the potentially damaging inverse network and switch voltages which occur when the load is less than the network impedance; especially when non-constant loads are encountered. The choice of the clipper diode stacks for a megawatt (MW) average power pulser resulted from a study of commercially available units. Destructive tests of available units gave a figure of merit of 300:1 for the maximum single shot 10 microsecond current pulse to diode rated average current. A 150 ampere (A) average current diode was chosen for the 20,000. A worst case expected in the MW pulser gave a current safety factory of better than 2:1. For the 40 kilovolt (kV) pulser operation at a 1.5:1 voltage safety factor required 60 of the 1.0 kV diodes in series. A snubber capacitor and resistor across each diode provided equal voltage division and transient turn-on protection. Transient response of the snubber protected diode stacks was modeled at low powers and later confirmed in actual MW pulser operation.
- Publication:
-
NASA STI/Recon Technical Report N
- Pub Date:
- November 1978
- Bibcode:
- 1978STIN...7922380L
- Keywords:
-
- Clipper Circuits;
- Diodes;
- Pulse Generators;
- Semiconductor Devices;
- Capacitors;
- Delay Lines;
- Electrical Impedance;
- Short Circuits;
- Suppressors;
- Transient Response;
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering