Fast ignitron-based magnetic field pulser for biological applications

Abstract

The emerging contactless cell membrane permeabilization methodology (magnetoporation) based on high pulsed magnetic field (PMF) is highly dependent on the applied pulse parameters. Due to the lack of magnetic experimental infrastructure, the parametric analysis of PMF-induced effects, scatter, and consolidation of research in this field is limited. Therefore, this paper presents a flexible high dB/dt magnetic field pulser, which is easy to reproduce. The generator is applicable in the area of contactless biological cell membrane permeabilization or study of the biological effects of PMF. The pulse forming circuit is based on the high-power ignitron switch (20 kV, up to 100 kA), which is driven by an array of silicon control rectifiers. The generator is capable of forming repetitive pulses with sub-microsecond rise time, which ensures induced electric field in the range of several tens to hundreds of V/cm. The generator is compact, programmable and includes an emergency discharge circuit for safety reasons. The setup may find direct application as a platform for basic magnetoporation experiments.