The 30th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, November 2 - 6, 2004, Busan, Korea

High Voltage-Pulse Power Supply Using IGBT Stacks

long-Hyun Kim, Myung-Hyo Ryu, S. Shenderey, long-Soo Kim, and Geun-Hie Rim, Member, IEEE

P.O. Box 20, Changwon, 641-120, Korea

Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI)
e-mail: kimjh@kerLre.kr

ring between the target and the ground.

Abstract- High voltage pulse power supply using IGBT
stacks and pulse transformer for plasma source ion implanta­
tion is proposed in this study. To increase voltage rating, twelve
IGBTs are used in series and a step-up pulse transformer is
utilized. To increase current rating, the proposed system makes
use of synchronized threepulse generators composed of diode,
capacitor and IGBT stack. The proposed pulse power supply
uses only semiconductor switches made oflGBTs with only two
active drivers. Hence, the system is compact, and has long life­
time, high efficiency, and high parameter flexibility such as
voltage magnitude, the PRR, and the pulse width.
I. Ir.'TRODUCTION
Plasma source ion implantation is an emerging technol­
In this paper, high voltage pulse power supply using
IGBT stacks and pulse transformer for plasma source ion
implantation is presented. To increase voltage rating, twelve
IGBTs are used in series at one IGBT stack and a step-up
pulse transformer is utilized. IGBT stack composed of
twelve IGBTs has a very simple gate driver. It has only two
active drivers and eleven passive drivers (composed of only
passive components such as resistors, capacitors, and diodes).
This RCD circuit acts as a gate driver and an RCD snubber to
each IOBT switch. To increase current rating, the proposed
system makes use of synchronized three pulse generators
composed of diode, capacitor and IGBT stack. The proposed
scheme is easy to upgrade the output power and to maintain

ogy for surface treatment of metal and polymer materials.
Through this technology it is possible to improve surface
properties of the material s such as metal s, plastics and ce­
ramics [1-2}. This technology also can be applied for semi­
conductor fabrication that needs ion implantation [3].
the system due to its modular design of the sub-systems. Fast
overcurrent detection, fast tum off IOBT stacks, and over­
voltage protection measure are implemented to protect the
pulse power supply. The proposed system has the advantages
of high efficiency, long lifetime, and high parameter flexi­

There are several circuits that are generally used to pro­ bility such as voltage magnitude, the PRR, and the pulse
vide high voltage pulses for plasma source ion implantation. width.
The hard-tube type pulse power supply as shown in Fig. I (a)
has been used for many years. It has advantages such as High
better rectangular pulse shape, wide range of impedance Voltage
Power
matching, high duty cycle, and long lifetime (above 10,000
Su
hours). But it has a low efficiency due to high voltage drop I
and needs isolated driver and control power due to floating
hard tube switch [4]. And this circuit has a low current (a) The hard-tube type
limitation (50 - 100A) because oflow peak current rating of
Charging
hard tube switch. The thyratron type pulse power supply is System
Cl
shown in Fig. I (b) [5]. It has a grounded thyatron switch that I

is easily driven and controlled. Thyratron switch has ad­

vantages such as high peak current capability, reliable per­ Power
Supply
formance, and wide commercial availability. But this circuit
has shortcomings such as low duty cycle and low voltage due Thyratron

to low voltage rating of thyratron. So this type pulse power

supply can be used with the pulse forming line to produce (b) The thyratron type
high voltage output. Thyratron plus the pulse forming line
type pulse power supply as shown in Fig. I (c) is proposed in 3 Stage
Pulse Fonni ng Line
the literature [6]. It has advantages such as high voltage and I
high efficiency but has many drawbacks such as poorer
Pul se
rectangular pulse shape, narrow range of impedance
9
Power L�==::::=::1.l..,.Transfonner
matching, and short lifetime (10 pulses). A crossatron
switch type pulse power supply is presented in the literature
[7]. The crossatron is a gas discharge device and is one of
I
SUprP_y_....L___--I._______ ...,)\I�
most powerful pulse generating devices. It overcomes the
(el Thyratron + pulse forming line type
current limitations of conventional hard tubes. But the
crossatron is not easy to tum off in the case of an arc occur- Fig. 1. Topology of the previous pulse power supply.

0-7803-8730-9/041$20.00 ©2004 IEEE

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 II. DESCRIPTION OF THE TOPOLOGY
The block diagram of the proposed pulse power supply
and its overall circuit diagram are shown in Figs. 2 and 3.
The IGBT based switch stacks generate pulse voltages from
the DC high voltage. To increase the current rating of the
pulse power supply, three IGBT stacks are used in parallel.
The DC link capacitor energy charges each high voltage
capacitors (Cl - C3) through diode (DI - D3) when IGBT
stacks are off. If IGBT stacks are turned on, the energy of
high voltage capacitors is transferred to the output load
through a step-up pulse transformer.
When IGBT stacks are turned off, the inductive reversal
voltage is applied to the transformer. This reversal voltage
produces positive voltage at the secondary of the pulse
transformer. If the output diode (Do) does not exist, the
positive voltage affects at the plasma load. The positive
voltage makes electron conduction in the plasma load, which
results in plasma density reduction. Plasma density reduction
means the reduction of the ion implantation. So the output
diode is necessary for positive voltage blocking at the plasma
load.
The tum ratio of the pulse transformer is I :6.6. Hence,
the maximum output voltage is 66kV. Pulse width and pulse
repetition rate (PRR) controller provides the flexibility of the
proposed pulse system. The output current and voltage are
sensed by a current sensor and a voltage divider, respectively,
and are fed to the controller. Using this information, the
system can be protected from fault over-current. Generally,
the step-up transformer requires that a "reset pulse" be ap­
plied between pulses to block core saturation. So the reset
power supply ("Vrosen is applied using the "Lebol«" which is
for isolation between high voltage transformer and the reset
power supply.
f--.-'�L ....
I ....-1
..
POWER
SUPPLY Load
O-IOkV
Fig. 2. Block diagram of the proposed pulse power supply.
POWER 1Tt��r---!>I""'--t---l I--r"'l
SUPPLY
O-IOkV
C3;Q3S L 'Q
Ds3
GBT
tack3 .",.
Controller
Fig. 3. Overall circuit of the proposed pulse power supply
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III, KEy COMPONENTS
A. IGBT stacks
Three lGBT stacks are used in this topology. Fig. 4 shows
the single IGBT stack. Each IGBT stack consists of twelve
lGBTs and has only two active drivers and eleven passive
drivers (composed of only passive components such as re­
sistors, capacitors, and diodes). This RCD circuit acts as a
gate driver and an ReD snubber to each IGBT switch. Active
driverl turns on the bottom IGBTl.l' If the bottom IGBTl.l is
turned on by the active driverl, the collect-emitter voltage of
the bottom lGBTl.l begins to decrease. The decreased col­
lect-emitter voltage of the IGBTu gives tum-on energy to
gate-source of the upper IGBTn Then collect-emitter
voltage of the IGBT1.l begins to decrease. Similarly, this
decreased collect-emitter voltage of the IGBT2.l provides
turn-on energy to gate-source of the upper IGBTn IGBT4.l
- lGBTI2.1 are driven in the same method. All twelve ]GBTs
of the stack are turned on at the same time in this method.
With all twelve IGBTs being turned on, if the active drive2
turns on twelve FETs (Ml.I - M12.t), then gate-source volt­
ages of twelve JGBTs are discharged and all twelve IGBTs
are turned off In this method, twelve lGBTs are turned on or
off simultaneously using only two active drivers. Two active
drivers are located in the groundside, which ensures low
insulation requirement for the controller resulting in simple
and cost effective driving method.
Most semiconductor switches are fairly tolerant of over­
current but intolerant of overvoltage condition. So voltage
balancing between switches is a very important considera­
tion in series connection. The voltage balancing during the
blocking mode (IGBT off state) is achieved using balancing
resistor (RB) in parallel to the lGBT and the voltage sharing
during the transient is obtained from ReD circuit. In this
moment, the ReD circuit acts as an RCD snubber.
Fig. 5 is a simulated result of the IGBT stack. It shows that
all twelve IGBTs are turned on or off simultaneously and
voltage balancing is maintained for the blocking mode as
well as the tum-on and tum-off transients.
From
Controller IGBT
Stack
Fig. 4. Stack configurations.
 of the output pulse voltage are I and 2 [I1S], respectively. Fig.
9 shows waveforms of pulse width variation at plasma load.
The pulse width can be controlled from 2 to [IlS]. Figs. lO(a),
(b) show waveforms of different pulse repetition rate at
plasma load. Pulse repetition rate can be controlled from 10
to 2000 [pps]. Fig. II shows overcurrent waveform due to
the arc in the plasma load. If output current rapidly increases
due to the arc, then overcurrent protection circuit turns off
lGBT stacks. However the induced overvoltage at the stack
is tolerant due to action of overvoltage protection circuit. The
proposed pulse power supply has high flexibility of the
Fig. 5. Simulated result of the IGBT stack. output voltage with respect to the pulse width, the PRR, and
the voltage magnitude.
B. Protection Circuit
Fault detection and fast protection are critical parts of the
pulse power supply. Due to the arc in the plasma load, short
current (overcurrent) condition is often generated. Generally,
overcurrent condition results in overvoltage at IGBT stacks.
So fast overcurrent detection, fast tum off IGBT stacks, and
overvoltage protection measure are important to protect the
solid-state switch. The proposed system uses diode (Doc!,
00<2, Dod) and capacitor (Cin) for overvoltage protection of
IGBT stacks.
C. Pulse Transfonner
The purpose for using a pulse transfonner is to operate
IGBT stacks at low voltage and deliver a high voltage to the
output load. The pulse transformer is conservatively de­
signed and inserted in an oil tank for cooling and reliable
operation. Ten pieces of ferrite core are used in the pulse
transfonner. The p ulse transfonner consists of six primary
windings and four secondary windings. The specific pa­
Fig. 6. Photograph of the IGBT stack.
rameters are shown in Table I.
Tahl e I . S,ystem speCL'nLcatlOns
' andI pammeters
PRR 10 - 2000[ppsI Width
[ZkVtcllv.]
2 - S[JlS]
Rising time I [Jls ] Falling time 2[Jls]

Current Max.lOO[A] Voltage 10 -66[kV)

L" 10 [JlH] Lm 3.3[mH] =

n 6.6 (66110) Cl-C3 0.47[JlF) ==
-

C;n 1.5[IlF) L 1, L�h[')""� 3[mH]

=
R2 I [ill)
Rl 100O[kO]
==
=
IV. EXPERlMENTAL RESULT

In order to verifY the proposed pulse power supply shown in

[2usIdiv.)
Fig. 3 is implemented with the parameters in Table I. The
IGBTs of the switch stack have the ratings of 1,200V and Fig. 7. Experiment waveforms of the IGBT stack for voltage balancing test.
200A. Fig. 6 is a photograph of the IGBT stack. Bottom
IGBT has only two active drivers and other IGBTs do not
have any active driver. So it is very simple and cost effective
driver method. Fig. 7 is experimental waveforms of IGBT
stacks for voltage balancing test at resistive load. It shows the
even voltage distributions for each device in the stack. The
applied voltage on the stack is 800V. The deviations of dv/dt
of each device in the stack are negligible. This result is a
good agreement with simulated result. Figs. 8(a), (b) are
stack current waveforms and output pulse waveforms. Stack
current waveforms show that good current sharing at the
each stack. Output voltage and current have wavefonns with
overshoot due to leakage inductance of transformer and ca­
pacitance of plasma load. The output voltage and current are
60kV and 20A, respectively. And the rising and falling time (a) Stack current waveforms

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 (c) 1500 [pps]
(b) Output voltage waveforms and stack voltage waveform
c"""'"
OC:l:1
Fig. 8. Stack current sharing and output pulse waveforms at plasma load.

C�lV c....�:
. 2Us1dv
:DC I:. 001000:1:: : :
UORt.r.1D1NS/S
...j ..
. .
......�.-...... ········'-··..,��"·· I -'··
i
1

.. 1---"
[100u,/div·1

(d) 2000 [pps I

pus/div·l
Fig. 10. Waveforms of different pulse repetition rate at plasma load.
Fig. 9. Waveforms of pulse width variation at plasma load. tt'.iII1 'firm r �11l$102 1£,::3G;09
l;,j 2OIJ.4I04/3D.� CH_-1iv CI«� 2uI./dly
c� CH4115OOU11; '5Wu$,...... DC: t:l DC 1008:1 �
DC: 1:1 DC: ,om:, 1Il."..

[2us/div·1
Fig. It. Overcurrent waveform due to the arc in the plasma load.
(a) 500 [pps)
1113tlJ
21J11.1.104Ino
QI.I.1IJ'lOIIII: ZOOUI/oCIIT
DC 1000:1: V. CONCLUSION
�.r---�--r---������---.--��
· �
�
� �/�'
High voltage pulse power supply using [GBT stacks and
pulse transformer for plasma source ion implantation is
proposed and implemented. Fast o vercurrent detection, fast
tum off IGBT stacks, and overvoltage protection measure
are implemented to protect the pulse power supply. The
developed system has the advantages of high efficiency, long
lifetime, and high parameter flexibiJity such as voltage
magnitude, the PRR, and the pulse width. Good agreement
between the simulated and experimental results shows the
possibility of the proposed system for the plasma source ion
. [200us/div· 1 implantation source.
(b) lQOO [ppsl

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work is funded by the NRL (National Research Lab.)

program of the MOST (Ministry of Science and Technology
of Korea).

VI. REFERENCES

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[4] D. Deb, J. Siambis, R. Symons, and G. Genovese, "Beam Switch Tube
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[5] D. M. Goebel, R. J. Adler, D. F. Beals,and W. A. Reass,Handbook of
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[6] R. J. Adler, J. Scheuer. and W. Home, "Thyratron modulators in
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[7] Dan M. Goebel, "High Power Modulator For Plasma Ion Implanta­
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