A 3kV/1.5A/2kHz Compact Modulator for Nitrogen Ion Plasma Implantation

Abstract

To treat stainless steel surfaces by nitrogen plasma implantation we devised a solid-state compact modulator, in which a 8.0 muF capacitor discharges through a forward converter composed of a low blocking voltage IGBT switch (1.0 kV) and three step-up pulse transformers, rather than employing hard-tube devices such as in conventional plasma ion implantation pulsers, which are expensive and cumbersome. For this, by using a high- voltage resistive load of 2 kOmega and a low power DC charger of only 300 V/0.2 A we built a prototype to provide pulses of 3 kV/5 mus with rise time of about 1.0 mus at a repetition rate of 2 kHz.