A Two-Stage Pulsed Power Supply for Low-DC-Voltage and Low-Frequency Pulsed-Current Loads

For a power supply of a low-voltage, low frequency, and pulsed current load such as the transmit and receive module (T/R module) of the solid-state radar, its output power is pulsed and input power is required to be constant. To balance the power difference and maintain a constant output voltage, the value of the storage capacitance is usually very large. In this article, a novel two-stage pulsed power supply is proposed. The intermedia bus capacitance is used as the storage capacitor to balance the power. An interleaved half-bridge converter with a wide voltage gain is adopted, so that the voltage of the storage capacitance can vary in a wide range, which greatly reduces the value of the storage capacitance. To suppress the fluctuation of the input current, a voltage feedforward control and a current preregulation control are proposed. Furthermore, the efficiency of the pulsed power supply is discussed. The comparative study shows an efficiency advantage of the two-stage scheme. Finally, a prototype with the output peak power of 2 kW, the average power of 325 W, and the pulse repetition frequency of 150-300 Hz is assembled and tested to verify the validity of the proposed two-stage pulsed power supply and its control methods.

Automated summary

This article proposes a novel two-stage pulsed power supply scheme, utilizing an intermediate bus capacitance and an interleaved half-bridge converter to balance power differences and reduce the value of the storage capacitance. Voltage feedforward control and current preregulation control are introduced to suppress input current fluctuations and improve efficiency.