Single-Switch Transformer-Less Power Supply for Low Temperature Plasma Jet – 3.3 kV SiC MOSFET Opportunities

This work presents a simple power converter, without any high voltage transformer, able to supply and control a plasma jet based on dielectric barrier discharge. The converter, operating in pulsed current mode, requires a single power switch and is fed by a low voltage dc source. It can deliver very short duration pulses to the plasma jet with high current amplitude. The operating principle is explained by means of the state plane analysis and is validated with simulations and experimental results. The equations provided allow for the calculation during the design stage of important characteristics of the plasma jet as the peak voltage and the duration of the pulses. The power can be easily adjusted during experimentation to comply with the desired appearance of the plasma jet.

I. Introduction

A plasma jet could be seen as a source of low-temperature excited species sent to a target via a spray (or stream) without a necessary physical contact between the supply and the target. For biomedical applications, this target might be a human tissue to be treated in curing applications [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] where low temperature is mandatory to avoid pain in the patient. This source of nonequilibrium plasma is also matter of research for other usages where a temperature near the ambient must be maintained, such as in material processing [6], [7], enzymes production [8], [9], water depollution [10], [11], and agricultural production [12], [13].