Self Tracking Resonant Push-Pull Oscillator With Rectification (STRPOWR) for Faraday Cup Applications[formerly Variable High Voltage DC with 2 KHz AC Modulator for Faraday Cup Applications]

Advancing the instrumentation to detect elementary particles is critical for future space weather missions. To progress the study of the flow of energy that heats and accelerates solar corona and wind, a next generation Faraday Cup is needed. Extending the range of solar wind speed measurements to 2,500 km/sec or more requires a new, innovative power supply with significant high-voltage DC and AC modulation capabilities. The desired voltage output range for a next generation Faraday Cup is 150V to 40kV. The power supply developed in this effort handles the upper range of 8kV to 40kV. The Upper Range Power Supply (URPS) is broken up into two main subsystems for the DC voltage generation and the variable AC sine wave generation, which will be AC Coupled to the DC bias. The URPS includes AC and DC voltage generating sub-systems that are superimposed on each other via a coupling network. The AC sub-system is a novel resonant push-pull (RPP) converter that generates a 2kHz sine wave with variable peak to peak voltage from 1kV to 4kV.nbsp;The RPP converter achieves zero voltage switching (ZVS) with a self-tracking gate drive circuitry implemented with GaN technology. The output of the 2kHz circuit is capacitively coupled to the DC bias to produce a high voltage sine wave with an ultra-high voltage offset for the Faraday Cup. The DC subsystem includes a five stage Cockroft Walton Voltage Multiplier (CWVM) driven by another RPP converter oscillating at 200kHz. nbsp;The two sub-circuits are controlled independently to allow for maximum flexibility in setting DC offset and AC amplitude. Both outputs are coupled together and connected to a load that is a representative model of an actual Faraday Cup.