Design of Rectangular Current Capacitor Banks

G. D. Cormack, A. D. Miller, and K. O. Tan

Citation: Review of Scientific Instruments 43, 140 (1972); doi: 10.1063/1.1685413

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 THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS VOLUME 43, NUMBER 1 JANUARY 1972

Design of Rectangular Current Capacitor Banks

G, D, CORMACK, A, D, MILLER, AND K, 0, TAN

Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

(Received 2 September 1971)

The design equations for a capacitor bank current source capable of producing an essentially flat-top, kilo-
ampere-range current pulse having a duration of the order of tens of microseconds are presented, Magnitude, rise
time, duration, and droop of the pulse are considered,

INTRODUCTION
Many pulsed plasma sources obtain energy from the
discharge of a capacitor bank, typical operating param-
eters being peak current I p= 1 to 200 kA, duration T= 5
to 5000 J,lsec, initial voltage on capacitors Ve= 1 to 50 kV,
and bank energy = 100 J to 1 MJ. The usual current wave
shape is a damped sinusoid when the capacitors are
electrically connected close together to simulate a single,
low inductance large capacitor. The purpose of the present
work is to present the design equations for the capacitor
bank that produces the essentially rectangular wave
shape of current shown in Fig, 1. This bank is of most use
for simulating, for times of the order of microseconds to
milliseconds, a direct current of large magnitude, Such a
current obviates many of the time-dependent plasma
phenomena associated with a time-varying current, Like
the bank that produces a damped sinusoid current wave
shape, the present bank results in multiple pulses, How-
ever, in practice all but the first pulse can be suppressed
by a shorting switch connected to shunt the load at the
end of the first current pulse, All attention in the present
work is focused on the design features of the bank that
affect the shape of this first current pulse.
LOAD CURRENT
KA
METHOD
The designer is assumed to have values for the load
resistance R L, load inductance LL, pulse duration T,
plateau current I p, capacitor voltage V e , and initial rate of
rise of current i. The design procedure is for the lumped
parameter transmission line circuit shown in Fig. 2, n equal
value capacitors are to be connected together so that there
is a line inductance L between capacitors 1 and 2, 2 and 3,
3 and 4, etc., where the label 1 refers to the capacitor
nearest the load. The value of the internal inductance
Le of each capacitor, the capacitance per capacitor, C, and
the value of Land n are obtainable from
Le~ Ve/i -LL, (1)
C~ (Le+LL)(I NVe 2
) exp[RLtm/(Le+LLH (2)
L=C(Ve/I p-Rd, (3)
and
(4)
It should be understood that these equations are not
exact, due to the complexity of the actual circuit, but
that they are of sufficient accuracy for most design
purposes. Line resistance Rs is considered later.
The time tm for maximum current flow in Eq. (2) in the
load plus nearest capacitor circuit, that is, loop number 1
in Fig. 2, can usually be approximated by
(5)

an equation valid if this circuit is not heavily damped,

OVERSHOOT
i.e., RL«2(Le+LdC)!. Extensive computer solution of
100
DROOP various capacitor bank circuits has shown that the short
time waveform is determined principally by the circuit
loop that contains the load impedance and the nearest
1," PLATEAU capacitor.
CURREN
Equation (1) is derivable by considering the loop 1
circuit only. If Le is chosen appreciably smaller than the
right-hand side of Eq. (1), the resultant bank will have a
faster risetime than specified. Equation (2) is a relation
obtained by equating the peak value of the damped
sinusoidal current in loop 1 to I p for the entire bank. This
TM
~-_ _ _'T"~URATION _ _ _20_--tl~C
equation is the relation that fixes the overshoot to be very
small. If C is chosen appreciably less than the right-hand
FIRST PULSE side of Eq. (2), the current does not overshoot the plateau
FIG. 1. Typical pulse. value but rather exponentially rises toward it as shown
140

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 CAPACITOR BANKS 141

LOAD CURRENT
90 1(1.

f Y Y ..
n CAPACITORS

FIG. 2. Capacitor bank circuit.

in the computed curves of Fig. 3. Rere the effect of LL

varying is shown, which according to Eq. (2) can be 30
interpreted in terms of C. That is, an increase in LL for
20
fixed C results in the same effect insofar as overshoot or
exponential rise is concerned as does a decrease in C 10
while holding LL constant. Equation (3) is a well-known
relation for the plateau current and Eq. (4) has been
derived by Miller.l
o 10
TIllIE • ..u..
20
[C
The validity of the above equations was determined by FIG. 4. Computed pulse shape.
letting R L=0.035 n, LL= 250 nR, T=32 J.l.sec, I p=80 kA,
Vc= 10 kV, and j =3X1O lO A/sec. Equation (1) predicted could be decreased by making the line inductances vary
Lc~ 83 nR and Eq. (2) and (5), C~ 30.6 J.l.F. The actual inversely with distance from the load. The decrement per
values readily available in our laboratory were C = 15 J.l.F section required is given approximately by
and Lc=40 nR. Using these values in Eqs. (3) and (4)
yielded L= 120 nR and n= 11.9. A digital computer f:..L = 2R.(CL)!, (6)
solution for the load current, using the ECAp2 program, where Rs is the skin-effect resistance per section.
for the case C=15J.1.F, Lc=40 nR, L=120 nR, and n=lO The improvement in droop is evident from Fig. 5,
is shown in Fig. 4. which was determined by computer solution of the
A capacitor bank constructed using the above design circuits: (i) C=15,uF, n=1O, L=120 nR, LL=290 nR,
method produced a waveform having approximately 20% R L=0.035 n, Rs=0.002 n, Lc=O, and (ii) identical to (i)
droop. Further computer studies revealed that the droop except that the line inductances in circuit loops 2 through
was primarily due to the skin-effect resistance of the 9, numbered from the load, decreased linearly from 120
inductances connecting the capacitors together. The droop to 80 nR in decrements of 5.7 nR.
Finally, an attempt to minimize the deleterious effects
LOAD CURRENT of Lc was made by adding mutual inductance M between
1(1.
100
LOAD CURRENT
KA
80 iii IRAIEO L
80

70

10

o o
o 10 20
TINE • ..u. SEC TINE,..u. SEC

FIG. 3. Effect of varying load inductanc . FIG. 5. Compensation to correct for pulse droop.

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 142 CORMACK,
adjacent line inductors. Le exists in all capacitors and
principally results in a decrease in the rise time of the bank.
More costly capacitors have lower values of Le. The sign
of M was chosen to add, in a circuit model, a negative
inductance -M in series with Le and a positive inductance
+2M in series with the line inductors. A helical line in-
ductor having one turn per capacitor would give a physical
realization for this model. The net inductance in series
with each capacitor, Le-M, could even be made negative.
Extensive computer solution revealed that the expected
improvement (decreased risetime, increased magnitude,
decreased overshoot tendency) in general would not be
realized with M added and that, in fact, the presence of
M added some undesirable features to the pulse. For
example, when M> L e , a growing sinusoid would appear
on the plateau of the pulse! Only very careful circuit design,
with M added, would give any improvement at all to the
pulse shape. A very slight improvement could be realized
in rise time and lessened overshoot by using M =! Le
between loops 1 and 2 and M =Le mutual inductance be-
tween all other loops. The result was a very small improve-
ment, as compared to the M =0 case.
Another method of decreasing the rise time of the load
current was more successful. It consisted of using a small
internal inductance, small capacitance, high quality
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MILLER, AND TAN
capacitor C I in loop 1 and progressively larger capacitors
for the higher numbered loops. The value of line inductance
between capacitor 1 and 2, L I , was chosen such that
LI/C I = (Veil p - RL)2, d. Eq. (3). Also, the characteristic
impedance of the lumped line, (LJIC J)t, for the Ith
section was maintained constant independent of I to
obtain an essentially constant current in the load. Com-
puter solutions for a bank containing one capacitor each
of 1, 2, . . . lO.uF and appropriately stepped values of
inductances revealed that a fast rise time pulse having
moderate ringing tendency was obtainable. The ringing
could be undesirable for many applications because it
consisted of a modulation of the plateau value of current
by nondecaying high frequency components having up
to ± 10% of the amplitude of I p.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge financial assistance
received from National Research Council grant A-2409 and
Department of Defence Production contract 2PD8-8.
1 A. D. Miller, "Design of an Optimum Pulse Generator," M. Eng.
Thesis, Carleton University, Ottawa, October, 1966.
• ECAP (Electronic Circuit Analysis Program). International
Business Machines Corp. Data Processing Division, 1965.