Active lamp pulse driver circuit
Abstract
A flashlamp drive circuit is described which uses an unsaturated transistor as a current mode switch to periodically subject a partially ionized gaseous laser excitation flashlamp to a stable, rectangular pulse of current from an incomplete discharge of an energy storage capacitor. A monostable multivibrator sets the pulse interval, initiating the pulse in response to a flash command by providing a reference voltage to a non-inverting terminal of a base drive amplifier; a tap on an emitter resistor provides a feedback signal sensitive to the current amplitude to an inverting terminal of amplifier, thereby controlling the pulse amplitude. The circuit drives the flashlamp to provide a squarewave current flashlamp discharge.
- Publication:
-
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Report
- Pub Date:
- August 1983
- Bibcode:
- 1983nasa.reptU....L
- Keywords:
-
- Electric Pulses;
- Flash Lamps;
- Optical Pumping;
- Pulse Generators;
- Pulsed Lasers;
- Switching Circuits;
- Feedback Circuits;
- Laser Pumping;
- Optical Resonators;
- Patents;
- Pulse Amplitude;
- Square Waves;
- Transistor Circuits;
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering