A high voltage programmable ramp

generator
Cite as: Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 054701 (2008); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2912823
Submitted: 26 November 2007 • Accepted: 30 March 2008 • Published Online: 05 May 2008

J. Upadhyay, M. J. Joshi, P. P. Deshpande, et al.

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Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 054701 (2008); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2912823 79, 054701

© 2008 American Institute of Physics.

 REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 79, 054701 共2008兲

A high voltage programmable ramp generator

J. Upadhyay,a兲 M. J. Joshi, P. P. Deshpande, M. L. Sharma, and C. P. Navathe
Laser Electronics Support Section, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology,
Indore, Madhya Pradesh 452013, India
共Received 26 November 2007; accepted 30 March 2008; published online 5 May 2008兲
In this paper, a ramp generator with programmable slope is presented. It consists of a high voltage
step generator, followed by integrator. The capacitor and inductor in the integrator are designed such
that they can be varied by a microcontroller. This circuit generates two bipolar ramps with fastest
speed ⬍1 ns and provides continuous speed variation from 6 to 30 ns for a ramp of 500 V. This is
being developed as a part of automated streak camera for deflection of electron beam. © 2008
American Institute of Physics. 关DOI: 10.1063/1.2912823兴

INTRODUCTION programmable ramp generator. This is possible if this gen-

erator utilizes components which can be varied by electrical
High voltage ramp generators are required for special-
control signals.
ized applications in various laboratories. In literature, one
can find reports on such generators in the microsecond
range1,2 and the nanosecond range.3,4 An important applica-
THEORY OF OPERATION
tion of a ramp generator is in a streak camera, where it is
used for the deflection of the electron beam. Further, it is Consider an R-L-C circuit shown in Fig. 1. For a step
necessary to produce two symmetrical ramps of opposite po- input of V, the output across capacitor is given as6 for an
larity in this application. As this waveform is produced by an underdamped case,
exponential decay, only the linear part of the same is used. In
this paper, we have described a simple technique to make a 再
V0 = V 1 − e−2␲kx 冋 k
共1 − k2兲0.5
sin 2␲x共1 − k2兲0.5

册冎
programmable ramp generator for the streak camera in which
all operating parameters can be controlled by a microcontrol-
ler. This circuit has been developed and tested in Laser Elec- + cos 2␲x共1 − k2兲0.5 , 共1兲
tronics Support Section, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced
Technology, Indore, India. where

MOTIVATION
k=
R
2
冑 C
L
, T = 2␲冑LC, and x = t/T.

For an overdamped case, this waveform is given as

再
Generally, a ramp voltage is produced when a step pulse
is applied to an integrator. The slope of the ramp is decided
by the time constant of the integrator. For producing multiple V0 = V 1 − e−2␲kx 冋 k
共1 − k2兲0.5
sin 2␲共1 − k2兲0.5x

册冎
slopes, it is necessary to alter the component values, so the
circuit has to incorporate high voltage relays to select the
appropriate discrete components for the required slopes.5 + cos 2␲共1 − k2兲0.5x . 共2兲
However, same performance can be achieved if one can in-
The choice of response is governed by the requirements
troduce variable components. In addition, a variable compo-
of the load. These can include nature of the curve, its linear-
nent has an additional advantage that it can be tuned to pro-
vide the required value.
In a streak camera, the ramp voltage is applied to its
deflecting plates in order to sweep the electron beam from
one end of its phosphor screen to the other end. The image
on the phosphor screen is then captured by a charge coupled
device camera followed by a frame grabber. At present, in
the streak camera developed in house for laser plasma diag-
nostics in our laboratory, all these operations are being
manually controlled. In order to bring all these operations
under a computerized control, it was necessary to design a FIG. 1. 共Color online兲 A ramp voltage 共V0兲 is generated across the capaci-
tance of an integrator circuit consisting of a resistance 共R兲, an inductance
共L兲, and a capacitance 共C兲 when a step voltage 共V兲 is applied to the input.
a兲
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: The slope of the ramp can be changed by changing the values of R, L,
janky@cat.ernet.in. and C.

0034-6748/2008/79共5兲/054701/5/$23.00 79, 054701-1 © 2008 American Institute of Physics

054701-2 Upadhyay et al.
FIG. 2. 共Color online兲 A block diagram of the dual variable inductance. A
stepper motor is coupled to an assembly of two ferrite cores moving inside
two solenoids. The inductances of both the solenoids are simultaneously
varied over desired range by proper positioning of the cores. The limit
switches are used to prevent the motion the ferrite cores beyond the desired
limits.
ity, etc. For linear shape, one can choose a slightly under-
damped response and select linear part between t = 0 and its
peak.
DESIGN OF THE COMPONENTS FOR
THE INTEGRATOR
For a programmable integrator, in principle, it is neces-
sary to vary the values of the inductance 共L兲, the capacitance
共C兲, and the resistance 共R兲. In our application, it was found
that the required values of the L are from 5 to 50 ␮H, for the
C, they are from 50 to 300 pF, and for the R, they are from
0 to 1000 ⍀.
For making a variable inductance, we have used a sole-
noid. The inductance of a solenoid is given as ␮0␮rAN2 / l,
where A is the cross-sectional area of the coil, N is the num-
ber of turns, and l is the length of the magnetic path. Thus, a
solenoid can be designed by appropriate choice of A, N, and
l for the minimum inductance required. Then, a ferrite core
can be inserted, and by adjusting its position in the solenoid,
its inductance can be changed. As we need two symmetrical
inductances, we have made two identical solenoids, with
A = 113 mm2, N = 20, and l = 30 mm 共see Fig. 2兲. Two ferrite
cores are mounted such that they can slide into them in iden-
tical fashion, giving same inductance in both circuits. The
variation in the inductance was achieved from 3 to 15 ␮H.
Similarly, a variable capacitance can be made by using
two parallel plates. Here, we have used a commercially
available component which is a miniature tuning capacitor
共generally known as a gang condenser兲, with two identical
capacitors 共see Fig. 3兲. It has a control shaft with a shaft
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 054701 共2008兲
FIG. 3. 共Color online兲 A block diagram showing the variable capacitor. A
stepper motor is coupled to the shaft of the dual 共gang兲 capacitor for varying
their values. The assembly of the capacitor is kept inside an oil tank to
provide high voltage insulation. The limit switches are used to prevent mo-
tion of the ferrite cores beyond the desired limits.
rotation of 180°. Its capacitance ranges from 36 to 146 pF
with a tolerance of ⫾1.0 pF+ 1.5% rated for a voltage rating
of 100 Vdc. As it was not rated for the required voltage, the
same was put into a container of transformer oil to achieve
required insulation. In this way, the capacity marginally in-
creased to a range of 45– 182 pF, while the voltage rating
went up to 2 kV pulsed.
It is rather difficult to make a high voltage and variable
resistance with a low inductance for this application. Com-
mercially variable resistors of required rating are not avail-
able. Alternatively, making such a resistor in house is also
not possible due to lack of suitable components. Therefore,
as a compromise, we have chosen to use a single resistance
of 110 ⍀ as an optimum value.
Circuit description
The variable slope ramp generator consists of two parts,
namely, a step voltage generator and an integrator unit. The
block diagram of the same is shown in Fig. 4. The step
voltage is generated by the two stacks of avalanche transis-
tors 共FMMT 417兲 each containing six transistors 共see Fig. 5兲.
The two stacks are connected in series to minimize the jitter
in the two step voltages. The two stacks are biased by apply-
ing a positive ramp bias at one end of the first stack and
FIG. 4. 共Color online兲 Block diagram of the ramp gen-
erator unit, which shows two bipolar step generator
units followed by two integrator units 共composed of L1,
C1, R1 and L2, C2, R2兲 as shown by dotted blocks. The
figure shows ⫾ beam bias voltages which cut off the
unwanted part of the step generator output.
054701-3 Programmable ramp generator
negative ramp bias at the other end of the second stack. The
high voltage ramp bias and the beam bias are generated by
using two dc to dc converters. Both the stacks are triggered
at their respective lower ends of the transistors through a
pulse transformer having one primary and two secondary
windings 共1:1:1兲. The two step voltages thus generated are
connected to two integrator units through two high voltage
dc relays. These relays have one change-over contact. By
default, the step voltage sources are at normally closed 共NC兲
contact, i.e., the fastest slope of the ramp voltages. By acti-
vating these relays, the voltage sources can be connected to
the integrator units, thus getting the slower slope of the ramp
voltages, as decided by the values of R, L, and C.
Microprocessor control
For controlling various operations of the variable slope
ramp generator, a micro controller AD␮C831 共Analog
FIG. 6. 共Color online兲 Block diagram of the microcontroller ADuC831 based control unit for variable slope ramp generation. The high voltage relays 共HV
relay兲 are activated to select the slower/faster slope. To bias the step generator circuit and select the trigger inputs, the low voltage relays 共LV relay兲 are
activated. The I/O lines are used to control the phases of the two motors and the DAC output facilitates a controllable beam bias supply.
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 054701 共2008兲
FIG. 5. 共Color online兲 Schematic dia-
gram of the step voltage generator unit
followed by the integrator circuit. Ava-
lanche transistor stacks are used as fast
switches to generate high speed step
voltages of opposite polarity.
Devices兲7 is used. This processor has two digital-to-analog
converters 共DACs兲, an analog-to-digital converter 共ADC兲
with eight analog inputs, and four ports of eight logical
input/outputs 共see Fig. 6兲. For beam biasing, a dc-to-dc con-
verter is used with a control input generated from one of the
DAC outputs of the microcontroller. The avalanche transistor
stack is also biased by using another dc-to-dc converter. The
necessary input voltage for this converter is generated by
using a voltage divider with 12 V supply, since this voltage
is fixed. A low voltage relay contact is used to turn on high
voltages 共see Fig. 7兲 which, in turn, is switched by using a
logical output of the microcontroller.
We have used one stepper motor 共Astrosyn make, model:
Y129兲 to control the motion of the gang capacitor shaft
through the microcontroller. The stepper motor is coupled to
the variable capacitor and is operated by using four port pins
of the microcontroller. A high current Darlington array 共ULN
054701-4 Upadhyay et al.
2003兲 is used as a driver for the stepper motor phases. Ad-
ditional two port pins are used for detecting two limit
switches. Similar stepper motor with the driver integrated
circuit and the limit switches is used for providing the vari-
able inductances. Here, the motor is used to move the ferrite
rods inside two solenoids, a translation stage.
Generally, the streak camera operates in two different
modes: 共1兲 static mode operation, where all the electrodes of
the streak tube except deflecting plates are biased with suit-
able dc voltages, whereby one can analyze the static image
on the phosphor screen, and 共2兲 dynamic mode operation,
where deflecting plates are activated with suitable ramp volt-
ages along with other electrodes of the streak tube to analyze
streak image on the screen. These two modes are also con-
trolled in the program by activating the ramp bias voltage in
the case of dynamic mode through a low voltage relay. Fur-
ther, there is an additional control present for trigger mode
selection for internal trigger generation or external trigger
generation through another low voltage relay.
The microcontrollers are interfaced with the personal
computer 共PC兲 using an RS232 link. A LABVIEW 共Ref. 8兲
based graphical user interface 共GUI兲 is developed in the PC.
All the operational commands such as changing the slope of
the ramp, the mode of operation, the amplitude of the beam
biasing voltage, and the trigger generation are provided to
the user by this GUI. Whenever the user executes any of
these commands by using the GUI, it is serially communi-
cated to the microcontroller and the microcontroller takes the
necessary action depending on type of the command. C lan-
guage is used for programming of the microcontroller.
In order to minimize the electromagnetic interference re-
lated problems due to the high voltage switching, the step
generator circuit is enclosed in a box made of copper plated
glass epoxy sheet, and the microcontroller circuit is placed
in a shielded aluminum box. In addition to this, all the sig-
nals of the microcontroller and the stepper motor phases
are routed through the shielded cables and the high voltage
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 054701 共2008兲
FIG. 7. 共Color online兲 An overall
block diagram of the programmable
slope ramp generator system. The mi-
crocontroller based control circuit with
various control signals is shown inside
the dotted block, and high voltage cir-
cuit is shown outside. Both the circuits
are properly isolated to avoid electro-
magnetic interference to the control
circuits.
and the low voltage grounds are separated to avoid noise
coupling.
Application to the streak camera
In the streak camera, speed of the ramp applied to the
deflection plates corresponds to the calibration of the time
axis of the swept image. A ramp voltage of 1 kV is required
for streaking of 30 mm size of phosphor screen in S-20 op-
tical streak camera for which this system has been devel-
oped. It has two deflection plates that can be differentially
activated by two equal but opposite polarity ramp voltages.
Two slopes ⫾500 V 共instead of a single 1 kV slope兲 are used
as it doubles the ramp speed and puts less load on each step
generator. For this purpose, two ramp voltages of 1.5 kV
each are generated and a portion of 500 V is selected from
each waveform over its most linear section. This is done by
applying ⫾ dc biases known as beam bias to the output of
the stack 共Fig. 4兲.
The range of the slope and hence the values of the com-
ponents for the integrator can be decided either by simulation
or by experimental method. A combination of both was used
to achieve desired slopes in this setup. A slightly under-
damped response was chosen for the series RLC circuit, so as
to get a linear ramp with required speed. Further, since the
capacitance of the deflecting plate is ⬃10 pF, a resistor of
470 ⍀ was inserted in series 共working as RC filter兲 to filter
the oscillations in the ramp output signals. It may be men-
tioned that it is not necessary to have perfect matching of
two bipolar ramps, since the effective voltage applied on the
electron beam is the voltage difference between them. How-
ever, the ramps produced in this technique are well matched
since the variation in the component values is minimum, as
they are made in house and thus identical. The linearity of
the ramp was measured to be within 1% 共⬃10 V for 1000 V
slope兲 of the ideal slope which corresponds to the maximum
position error of 300 ␮m for a 30 mm phosphor screen.
054701-5 Programmable ramp generator
FIG. 8. Experimentally observed output waveforms are shown here. 共a兲
shows the step voltage waveforms in fastest mode 共i.e., without the integra-
tor unit兲. The ramp speed in fastest mode is 625 V / ns. 共b兲–共e兲 shows the
ramp output voltages 共i.e., the step voltage followed by the integrator unit兲
with different values of the inductance and the capacitance. The speed indi-
cated is for the selected region of 500 V. 共b兲 L = 3 ␮H, C = 45 pF, the ramp
speed is 100 V / ns; 共c兲: L = 3 ␮H, C = 182 pF, the ramp speed is 45.5 V / ns;
共d兲: L = 15 ␮H, C = 45 pF, the ramp speed is 33.3 V / ns; and 共e兲 with
L = 15 ␮H, C = 182 pF, the ramp speed is 16.7 V / ns.
The fastest sweep rate of the streak camera is achieved
when the sweep voltage is directly applied to the deflection
plates. So, the transition from the fastest mode of operation
to the slower mode of operation is controlled through the
microcontroller, by activating two high voltage relays placed
at the output of the step generator 共see Fig. 7兲. The values of
the components required for the slower slopes corresponded
to the certain positions of the stepper motors, which were
stored in the memory of the microcontroller. Finally, the GUI
was programmed for achieving required ramp slope by mov-
ing both the motors to their predetermined positions. Thus,
the user can select the required slope of the ramp through the
GUI, and then the microcontroller can move both stepper
motors to achieve required values of the inductance and the
capacitance, as well as apply required biasing voltage to pro-
vide the required slope of the ramp.
It may be mentioned that the ramp voltage applied on the
deflection plates is ⫾500 V, when the optical signal arrives
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 054701 共2008兲
at the photocathode. So either the optical signal or the ramp
generator output has to be delayed by appropriate time by an
independent optical delay to ensure proper synchronization
of the ramps with the signal.
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
As depicted from the Fig. 8共a兲, two step voltages with
⬍1 ns rise time are generated. The rise time is calculated for
a variation of 500 V in linear part of the ramp. The total
range of the ramp speed is 6 – 30 ns. By keeping the induc-
tance at the minimum value of 3 ␮H 共air core兲, the range
in the slope is found to vary from 6 to 11 ns, whereas by
keeping the inductance at the maximum value of 15 ␮H 共i.e.,
with the ferrite core fully in兲, the range in slope is found
to vary from 15 to 30 ns, by variation of the capacitance
from the minimum to the maximum value. Please refer to
Figs. 8共b兲–8共e兲. For the above measurements, we have used
an Agilent make mixed signal oscilloscope model 54642D
having a bandwidth of 500 MHz and a sampling rate of
2 Gsamples/ s. The high voltage probe used during this mea-
surement is Lecroy make 共model PPE6兲 having a bandwidth
of 400 MHz and a voltage rating up to 6 kV with an attenu-
ation of 1000:1.
DISCUSSION
In this paper, we have presented the design of a pro-
grammable ramp generator for application to the streak cam-
era. The technique used for this instrument is based on the
varying values of L and C in the integrator under the com-
puter control. As this technique uses variable components
instead of high voltage relays to switch discrete components,
this can be tuned more easily and accurately to the required
speeds. Further, it is also possible to design these compo-
nents in house as per design specifications of the speed and
the insulation. So this circuit can be adapted to other voltage
levels as well as slope requirements, and therefore it is more
versatile as compared to the other ramp generators described
in the literature.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge Dr. P. D. Gupta, Head,
Laser Plasma Division for his motivation and keen interest in
this work. Thanks are also due to Shri S. R. Khade for his
support in mechanical assembly of this system.
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