Evaluation of pulsed power sources for plasma generation

This paper reports repetitive pulsed power sources for generation of pulsed streamer corona and electrohydraulic spark discharge plasmas, respectively. Single- and multiple-switch circuit topologies are used for scaling the average power up. For positive streamer corona plasma, ultra-short (~ 50 ns) hybrid pulsed-power technologies have been under investigations with an industrial pilot system. For electrohydraulic spark discharge plasma, an all solid-switch pulsed power technology has been developed and introduced into the market since 2002. This paper also discusses critical circuit elements, such as heavy-duty thyristor, transmission line transformer, and triggered spark-gap switch, and their industrial applications.