CPES Research on High-Frequency, High-Voltage, High-Power-Density Capacitor Charger for Pulsed-Power Applications

CPES researchers have completed a project sponsored by US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) entitled, "A High-Frequency, High-Voltage, High-Power-Density Capacitor Charger for Pulsed-Power Applications." The goal was to develop a high-density, high-power, and high-voltage to be used in pulsed-power applications to charge high-energy capacitor banks. The primary technical challenge is to achieve the power density goal under a harsh environmental condition.

Three-level resonant converters are applied to achieve high efficiency, high frequency and high power density. Advanced power factor control scheme is proposed to improve the whole system efficiency. Magnetics integration technique is applied to significantly reduce the passive components size. Superior SiC devices are applied for high temperature and high efficiency operation. A 700kHz, 3.7kW 600V/10kV prototype with 72W/in3 power density was built to demonstrate the overall advantages.

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