A Drive Circuit With Overcurrent Protection for Solid-State Marx Generators

In recent years, all-solid-state high-voltage pulse generators have been widely used in irreversible electroporation for tumor ablation technology. However, high voltage may cause the breakdown of loads that leads to short circuits. The short circuit of loads will generate high short-circuit currents that will affect the performance of semiconductor switches. To improve the reliability and lifetime of solid-state pulse generators, a passive synchronous isolated gate drive circuit with short-circuit protection based on decreasing the gate-source voltage is proposed in this article. To verify the overcurrent protection during the breakdown of loads, a solid-state Marx generator prototype using the drive circuit was built and tests were carried out. The experimental results show that the 205-A short-circuit current was clamped with 90 A in less than 500 ns, while the transient voltage can be neglected. Besides, the response time, the maximum transient voltage, and the maximum current amplitude can all be adjusted.

Automated summary

This article proposes a passive synchronous isolated gate drive circuit based on decreasing the gate-source voltage to improve the reliability and lifetime of solid-state pulse generators. Experimental results demonstrate that the circuit provides overcurrent protection for short circuit situations and allows for flexible adjustment of response time, maximum transient voltage, and maximum current amplitude.