1. High-voltage pulse generators incorporating modular multilevel converter sub-modules
- Author
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Elgenedy, Mohamed Atef, Holliday, Derrick, and Williams, Barry
- Subjects
621.3 - Abstract
Recent research established the effectiveness of applying a pulsed electric field to deactivate harmful microorganisms (such as bacteria and E. coli). Successful deactivation is achieved by lethal electroporation; a process that produces electric pores in the biological cell membrane of the harmful microorganisms when subjected to high-voltage (HV) pulses. The HV pulses are designed to create pores beyond a critical size at which the biological cell can reseal. In contrast when applying non-lethal electroporation, the cell-membrane survives after the electroporation process. This is required, for example, when inserting protein cells in the cell-membrane. In both lethal and non-lethal electroporation, HV pulses in the kilo-Volt range (1-100 kV) with durations ranging between nanoseconds and milliseconds are required. This thesis proposes nine pulse generator (PG) topologies based on power electronic devices and modular multilevel converter sub-modules. The proposed topologies are divided into two main groups namely: PGs fed from a HV DC supply and PGs fed from an LV DC supply. The first group presents a new family of HV DC fed topologies that improve the performance of existing HV DC fed PGs, such as flexible pulse-waveform generation and full utilisation of the DC link voltage. The second group is dedicated to a new family of LV DC fed PG topologies which have flexible pulse-waveform generation, controlled operation efficiency, and high voltage gain. All the proposed PG topologies share the important aspect in the newly developed HV PGs, that is modularity, which offers redundancy and robust pulse generation operation. The presented PG topologies are supported by theoretical analysis, simulations, and experimentation.
- Published
- 2018
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