Project on Solid State Tesla Coil

Names of Group Members

1. Kousik Paul 9. Arnab Roy

2. Raktim Sardar 10. Subhankar Bhattacharya
3. Ranit Ghosh 11. Amit Singh Kushwaha
4. Alik Baran Rana 12. Souhridya Bhattacharya
5. Arijit Kumar Mondal 13. Subhankar Chakraborty
6. Saptarshi Kundu 14. Satadru Sekhar Halder
7. Rahul Kar 15. P Kiran Kumar Patnaik
8. Souvik Mondal

Under guidance of
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Sign of H.O.D. Sign of Principle

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Sign of External
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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to all the teachers of

Electrical Department for giving us the opportunity to do this project on Solid
State Tesla Coil. Special thanks to our honourable H.O.D. Sir and our mentor
for this project for helping us complete the project. Secondly I would like to
thank Nicole Tesla (the inventor of tesla coil). I would also like to thank all my
group members without who the project would not be completed in time for
submission.
 Solid State Tesla Coil
Objective of the Project
A Tesla Coil is an air-cored resonant transformer capable of generating extremely high voltages. The
key concept of a Tesla Coil is its resonant property, where a Resistor-Inductor-Capacitor (RLC) resonant
circuit is energized at its resonant frequency, developing very high voltages.

A Tesla Coil consists of two concentric coils which are not electrically connected to each other. The
Primary Coil usually consists of a few turns of heavy wire, and has a shape ranging from a solenoid to
a flat spiral. This coil is usually connected to some capacitor, forming the Primary LC circuit. The
secondary circuit consists of a long coil of wire, usually having several hundreds to thousands of turns
wound on a pipe, and placed concentrically in the middle of the coil.

a normal Solid State Tesla Coil (SSTC) is simply a power amplifier driving a primary coil at
the resonant frequency of the secondary coil. As mentioned, the secondary circuit is a coil of
wire, one end of which is grounded, and the other end is connected to some kind of topload
(metallic volume) at the top of the tube. This topload is usually in the shape of a toroid (looks
like a doughnut). The toroid provides some sort of capacitance to the secondary, its shape
serves well in electric field control, and also looks cool! However, other shapes such as
spheres are also common. This topload capacitance (usually small, on the order of pF - can be
calculated) and secondary coil in series form an L (inductor) C (Capacitor) circuit with a
resonant frequency described by:

The ratio of L and C also determines the Q-factor of the system (which affects the selectivity,
or how narrow its resonant peak is). Think about the resonant frequency as if the circuit was
like a swing, which naturally wants to swing at a certain rate. Our goal is then to find a way
to drive this primary coil at the secondary's resonant frequency.

The way we achieve this is by switching power into the primary coil at the resonant
frequency of the secondary. We do this by creating a high-voltage square wave across the
primary coil using an inverter circuit. This circuit comes in two common forms - a half bridge
or a full bridge. Line voltage (120 or 240VAC depending where you live) is rectified and
stored in a large bus capacitor (several hundred to thousands of uF), and the inverter works to
create an AC square wave across the primary. The result of this is a sinusoidal current in the
primary coil due to it being driving at resonance.

Next, we need to know what the resonant frequency is. To determine the correct frequency to
drive the coil, an external oscillator can be used (requires tuning), or feedback can be taken
from the secondary or primary coil for self-oscillation.

When the secondary coil is driven at resonance, a large voltage develops across the coil.
Using an example of a swing, if we keep supplying 'pushes' at the correct resonant frequency,
the swing gets higher and higher. Similarly, a large voltage develops on the top load,
eventually leading to electrical ionization and breakdown of the air, forming sparks.
Circuit Diagram
Component List
 Power Supply Unit
 220-12v 2A Transformer
 Full bridge Rectifier
 LM7812
 LM7805
 470 uF Capacitor x3
 220 uF Capacitor
 120 Ω Resistor
 Red LED
 Interrupter
 ATtiny 45 Microcontroller
 10 kΩ Resistor x2
 5 kΩ Resistor
 120 Ω Resistor
 0.1 uF Capacitor
 Green LED
 IGBT Driver
 UCC27425
 16v 10uF Capacitor
 1 uF Capacitor
 Ferrite Toroid
 Feedback Circuit
 78HC14
 0.1 nF Capacitor
 0.1 uF Capacitor x2
 1 kΩ Resistor
 1n4148 Diode x2
 Half-Bridge Switching Circuit
 30N60 Mosfet x2
 1000 uF 250v Capacitor x2
 100 kΩ Resistor x2
 6.8 Ω Resistor x2
 1n4148 Diode x2
 MUR460 x2
 10A Fuse
 Primary & Secondary Coils, Toroid
 34 AWG Copper Enamelled Wire
 16 AWG Wire
 8" x 1.9" Stamped Aluminium Toroid
 Miscellaneous Items
 Soldering Iron
 Soldering Wire
 Connecting Wires
 12v DC Fan x2
 8 inch PVC Pipe
 Universal PCB Prototype Board
Procedure
The first part of the circuit we chose to solder was the voltage supply. This was primarily
because it is connected to every other part of the circuit. Anyway, we first soldered in the
terminal for connecting the transformer in, right next to it, the low voltage bridge rectifier.
Next, we move to the interrupter. This is the part that turns the coil on and off. We need to
limit the on time so that we don't completely wear out those mosfets. The reason we have
chosen to make this part before the rest (after the power supply) is so that we can test it
before finalizing any connection to turn on the coil.
Now, we will put together our feedback circuit. This part of the circuit is designed to capture
feedback from the secondary to keep the circuit resonating. Because we use feedback to
provide the signal to our half bridge, the coil is always in tune.
In this step, we will assemble the part of the circuit that combines and amplifies the
interrupter and feedback signals to drive the gate drive transformer. These parts can fail more
than others, so it's not a bad idea to install sockets.
The gate drive transformer takes the signal from the UCC's and sends it to the mosfets, as
well as isolating the low voltage side from the high voltage side. To make the transformer,
first, take your three pieces of wire, and twist them together. This creates a trifler winding.
Next, wind the wire around the ferrite toroid 16 times. (Each time the wire passes through the
centre is one turn) after that, cut the wire so there is about 2 inches on each side of the
transformer. Now, take two ends of wire of the same colour, and solder each to one output of
the gate drive section.
Now, when you switch 220 volts at hundreds of thousands of times per second, it is almost
indefinite that we will generate some heat. We use a heatsink to channel that heat away from
the mosfets, and into the air. To mount them is simple, but we should not forget to use
thermal paste. They keep the mosfet drains from shorting out.
The half bridge consists of two mosfets that alternate switching on and off to produce
alternating current. They do this at a high voltage, mainly so we can pump power through the
primary. This causes a magnetic field to be formed that excites the secondary coil (resonator)
and the resonant rise builds up the high voltage. Once it is high enough, it breaks out into air.
The primary coil is where the signals are amplified and pushed through here to make the
secondary make sparks. To make the primary, first, we need to find a circular object about
the diameter of our primary, and wrap our thick wire around it five times, leaving ~6 inches
on each end. Then, using our hands we hold it together. Then we get our secondary coil, and
put the primary around the base of the secondary.
Now, we're ready to set up for the test of our coil.
1. We attach our transformer to AC mains.
2. Attach the two leads of the primary coil to your output terminal near the bridge
3. Grab an ac cord and put the hot and neutral wires into the AC terminal.
4. Connect the bottom wire of your secondary to the mains ground, if you do not happen to
have a better earth growing connection.
5. Plug in your variac and DC power supply and set the variac to zero volts, turned off.
6. Turn on your DC power supply.
7. Plug the AC cord into your variac.
8. Turn on the variac.
9. Slowly turn up the voltage. We should see arcs coming out of the breakout point.

Estimated Budget
The estimated average budget of the project is nearly ₹5000.

Future Scope of the Project

A tesla coil is a device which can be used in many ways. Such as –
o Wirelessly Transmit Electricity
o Shooting Lightning Bolts
o Make Electron Winds
o Make Plasma Globe
o Produce Music through Lightning
o Amplification of Guitars
Bibliography

www.google.com

www.youtube.com

www.loneoceans.com/labs

www.instructables.com

www.wikipedia.org