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This paper presents a power electronics converter to generate bipolar high-voltage pulses using low-voltage dc source. Converter is designed based on charging of different capacitors by a predetermined switching pattern and their discharging on the load for pulsed power applications. Low number of power electronics devices and bulky transformer elimination are main advantages of the proposed converter. According to new findings, bipolar high-voltage pulses may lead to higher efficiency in many applications, such as food sterilization industry. The proposed pulse generator generates bipolar controllable pulses with a modular circuit structure based on a capacitor-switched network. Experimental results are presented to verify the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern pulsed power technology has its roots in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and it was driven overwhelmingly by applications in national defense carried out by several countries, especially the U.S., U.K., Russia, and China. The following decades, particularly the early 1990s, witnessed an increased interest in compact systems with pulse repetition rate that could be used in nondefense applications such as treatment of material surfaces by plasma and beam interactions, treatment of pollutants, food sterilization, medical applications, etc. This spawned a new generation of pulsed power components (solid-state switches) that led to completely solid-state modulators. This paper describes how the pulsed power technology used originally in beam sources and cathodic arcs has converged to produce power sources for plasma-based ion implantation (PBII) and related technologies. The present state of the art is reviewed, and prospects for future advances are described, especially for PBII. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]