Comparative Analysis of High-voltage High-frequency Pulse Generator Architectures for Pockels Cells

Abstract

Pockels cells are driven by high-frequency, high-voltage pulses and can be considered as capacitive loads. The capacitive nature of the load affects the rise and fall times of the pulses. To properly drive a Pockels cell, it is necessary to generate pulses of up to 1 kV with a repetition rate of up to 1 MHz, with rise and fall times of only a few nanoseconds. The process of driving the Pockels cell involves the rapid charging and discharging of its internal capacitive load, leading to issues such as increased heat dissipation as the high-voltage pulse frequency increases. Currently, there are three popular methods for realizing a high-voltage, high-frequency pulse generator: using voltage multipliers with bipolar transistors, vacuum tubes, or SiC MOSFET switching circuits. This article reviews these pulse generator architectures and discusses the specific technical parameters involved in the design and development of high-frequency, high-voltage generators. Finally, a comparison of these pulse generator architectures is provided.