Optimization of the driving circuit for material processing with a pulsed-glow discharge

Y.CESA; N. MINGOLO; O.E. MARTÍNEZ

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC

Lugar: Albuquerque; Año: 2000 vol. 28 p. 1035 - 1042

0093-3813

The effect of including an inductance in the circuit of a glow-discharge-pulsed electron gun for materials processing is analyzed. Due to the particular nonlinear behavior of the current vs voltage in these guns, and the strong nonlinear self-focusing of the beam, the adequate shaping of the temporal profile of the discharge becomes relevant to the efficiency of the system, A critical damping value for the inductance is obtained and within the range of practical interest, analytical expressions are derived for the required inductance, capacitance and source voltage for a given peak power, pulse duration, gas pressure, and pulse shape, The efficiency increase with the improved design is also discussed.