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High voltage pulse gated power

supply with adjustable pulse width

Yu, Yang, Tang, Yuanhe, Liu, Shulin, Yan, Baojun, Yang,

Yuzhen, et al.

Yang Yu, Yuanhe Tang, Shulin Liu, Baojun Yan, Yuzhen Yang, Kaile Wen,
"High voltage pulse gated power supply with adjustable pulse width," Proc.
SPIE 10256, Second International Conference on Photonics and Optical
Engineering, 102563F (28 February 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2257815

Event: Second International Conference on Photonics and Optical

Engineering, 2016, Xi'an, China

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 High Voltage Pulse Gated Power Supply
with Adjustable Pulse Width

Yang Yua, b, Yuanhe Tanga, Shulin Liu∗b, Baojun Yanb, Yuzhen Yangb, Kaile Wenb
a
School of Science, Xi’an University of Technology, 710048 Xi’an, China;
b
Institute of High Energy Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 10049 Beijing, China

ABSTRACT

Image intensifier is the key components of low-light level night vision device. In order to extend its dynamic range of the
night vision sight, a high voltage pulse gated power supply (HVPGPS) for image intensifier cathode is researched in this
paper. The HVPGPS with pulse width adjustable is optimally designed for the image intensifier cathode power supply.
Its pulse amplitude is 250 V, with 1 kHz frequency. Two different circuits are combined to get the adjustable pulse width
from narrow to wide. The pulse width parameters are: the narrow pulse circuit is from 20 ns to 300 ns, and its wide pulse
circuit is 300 ns – millisecond (ms). This HVPGPS can achieve the advantages of small size circuit, low power
consumption, and which meets the requirements of image intensifier cathode power supply.
Keywords: Image Intensifier, Power Gating, High-voltage Pulse

1. INTRODUCTION
Image intensifier is the key components of low-light level night vision device, its role is to strength weak ambient light to
visible light of human eye. When there is strong light in the environment, fluorescent screen output image blur if
photocathode working in DC power supply mode. In order to adapt to different illumination conditions especially in the
strong light condition, photocathode needs to be gated power supply. The gate pulse width should be adjusted according
to different incident light intensity, the conduction pulse width decreases with the increasing of the intensity of light,
which will extend the dynamic range of image intensifier.1
This study is aimed to design a gated power supply with adjustable pulse width for photocathode. The shortest pulse
width can be achieved 20 ns in the glare, while in low light level, it can be switched to work at DC mode. By making
circuit simulation and experimenting, pulse amplitude is 250 V, with 1 kHz frequency, the shortest pulse width can be
reached to 20 ns with a step size of 10 ns.

2. DESIGN AND CONSIDERATION

2.1 The principle of gated power supply
The main structure of image intensifier including photocathode, Micro channel plate (MCP) and fluorescent screen. As is
shown in figure 1, the power supply requirements of individual components are that fluorescent screen needs to be
supplied with 5000 V, MCPout connected to 1000 V and MCPin 200 V, above all of these working in DC mode. But for
photocathode, it should be supplied with adjustable pulse width square wave pulse, the voltage that is switched between
0 V and 250 V. The application of 0 V potential to photocathode turns the image intensifier on while the application of
250 V potential turns it off.2 Gate pulse frequency should be above 250 Hz considering the image flicker,3 and 1 kHz
frequency chose in this paper. Each cycle time is 1 ms, for 1 kHz frequency. The duty cycle changing from 0.002% to 1,
it changes by 5 orders of magnitude, which will extend the dynamic range of an image intensifier. In order to realize the
pulse width can be adjusted within a large range, two different types of drive circuit including wide pulse control circuit
and narrow pulse control circuit are designed.4 Pulse width adjustment range of wide pulse control circuit from 300 ns to

∗
liusl@ihep.ac.cn; phone +86-13601088043

Second International Conference on Photonics and Optical Engineering, edited by

Chunmin Zhang, Anand Asundi, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 10256, 102563F · © 2017 SPIE
CCC code: 0277-786X/17/$18 · doi: 10.1117/12.2257815

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 10256 102563F-1

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 near 1 ms, while narrow pulse control circuit can be adjusted from 20 ns to 300 ns. The whole range of high voltage
output pulse width is from 20 ns to DC, through combining the two different circuits.
fluorescent
photocathode screen

OFF
250V

200V 1000V 5000V

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of image intensifier gated power supply
2.2 High and low side drive circuit
The high and low side bootstrap drive is used to realize the adjustments of high voltage pulse width from ns to ms.
IR2181 is selected as MOSFET bootstrap driver chip. The circuit principle, as is shown in figure 2. The operation mode
of the circuit is that: firstly, high side MOSFET M1 turned on, while low side MOSFET M2 turned off, the output
voltage is 250 V, photoelectrons in off-state. After a time M1 turned off and M2 turned on, the photocathode at ground
potential, photoelectrons can be emitted from photocathode to MCP.
VDD
bootstrap 250V
diode
M1
12V
bootstrap
1--
input square capacitor 14
wave pulse VCC Vb
1KHz L__I I
HIN Hout
i

11 -°'
LJ-°' LIN Vs high voltage
Rg pulse output
com
Lout -/V\At k- A
MOSFET driver
IR2181 1

M2

Figure 2. High and low side driver schematic diagram

Integrated driver chip IR2181 selected as bootstrap driver, the circuit has the advantages of simple structure, small size,
which is convenient to be integrated. In the case of driving 1 nF load, the output driving signal of rise and fall time of the
chip are 40 ns and 20 ns, respectively. The peak source and peak sink driving current are 1.9A and 2.3A, respectively.
MOSFET type is IRFF310, the main parameters as follow: VDS=400 V, Qg=6 nc, rise time Tr=10 ns, fall time Tf=8 ns.
The MOSFET turn-on rise time and turn-off fall time dT to take 10 ns to calculate the peak drive current by Eqs. (1),5
and 0.6A obtained by calculation.

Qg
I= (1)
dT
Usually over twice the current of the calculation will be required, which is 1.2A. IR2181 can fully meet the drive
requirements.

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 But there is a disadvantage of bootstrap drive circuit, it can’t work at DC mode. Because the bootstrap capacitor can be
charged only when M2 is turned on during a period of M1 turned off. The M2 conduction time should be long enough to
ensure that the bootstrap capacitor can be fully charged. If bootstrap capacitor charging time is not long enough, M1
can’t be turned on, then the whole circuit doesn’t work fine. The electric capacity of the bootstrap capacitor can be
calculated,6 the calculation results show that it should be greater than 8 nF, and 0.1 uF selected actually.
270 /V

240-

210-

180 -

150

»n-
90

60

30

-30
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 /ns

Figure 3. Simulation waveform of output voltage pulse 300ns with high and low side driver
The simulation results are shown in figure 3. The key to limit the shortest pulse width is M2 conduction time,
considering drive speed of driver chip and switching speed of MOSFET. When the low side switch M2 is turned on and
high side switch M1 is turned off, the bootstrap capacitor charging through the bootstrap diode, from the 12 V power
supply. The conduction time will influence the bootstrap capacitor charge. For 0.1 uF capacitor, about 0.03% duty cycle
is safe, if duty cycle shorter than 0.02%, the high side switch M2 can’t work properly. The circuit has been tested in
experiment and shortest pulse width of high voltage is 300 ns, as shown in figure 4, and pulse width can be adjusted from
300ns to near 1 ms. Another advantage by using bootstrap drive circuit is that the losses of the circuit can be reduced
greatly, because high side and low side MOSFET conduction respectively, the 250 V power can’t through the RL to
ground directly, that the RL is almost no power consumption.

. . . . : . . . .
.o0on,:.
23oM
..... . . . . .... : ... : .... : ... .
.

. r
.

.
.

V
s . . . . i . . . i . . . . t . . . . B . . . . 1

Figure 4. Shortest output pulse width 300ns with high and low side driver
2.3 Low side drive circuit
Due to the limitation of the bootstrap circuit principle, narrower pulse output could not be got. Using a low side drive
circuit to drive a single MOSFET,7 then it will get a narrower square wave pulse output of 0-250 V. The circuit
simulation diagram, as is shown in figure 5. The operation mode is as follow: when the MOSFET is closed, the output is
250 V, while MOSFET is turned on, the output is ground potential. On the one hand, the RL will impact rising edge
speed, in order to obtain narrower high voltage pulse, the smaller RL the better; on the other hand, the main power
dissipation is RL losses, the smaller the resistance value, the greater the energy losses, then higher power requirements
for the power supply, this will limit the pulse width adjustment range. The dissipation PD of RL can be calculated by Eqs.
(2). VDD is the value of high voltage; PWM is the duty ratio of high voltage pulse.

V DD2
PD = ∗ PWM (2)
RL

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 .STEP PARAM L list In 5n 10n 15n 20n

IRFF310

V1 source

D2
100p Cl DD

D1 L2

PULSE(0 12 0 10n 10n 12n lm 10)

{L}
D3
ground

Figure 5. Low side drive circuit simulation diagram

By simulation the research finds that loop line inductances of MOSFET connection on both sides of high voltage loop
has a significant impact on waveform quality, especially the inductances from source to ground. The value of inductance
L2 from source to ground is set as 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 nH, the results are shown in figure 6. The circuit simulation and
optimization by LTspice shows that when the inductance is 1 nH, the output high voltage pulse of 20 ns can be attained,
the voltage at the bottom of the waveform is relatively flat near 15V. The bottom voltage of waveform increases with the
increasing inductance, which will affect the turn-on working state of image intensifier. In order to reduce the inductance,
it is necessary to shorten the line of high voltage circuit.8
270N
240 -

210-
180-

150-

120 -

90 -

60 -

30 -

0
5 15 25 35 45 55 /ns
Figure 6. The simulation of high voltage output pulse with different L2 of low side drive circuit
Building a test circuit on prototyping board, the circuit has been tested in the experiment and the shortest pulse width of
high voltage is 20 ns, as shown in Figure 7. At present, the pulse width can be adjusted to 100 ns, because the low output
power of high voltage power supply, there is voltage drop with pulse width increasing. According to the resistance value
of RL and conduction time of high voltage circuit, to calculate power dissipation of RL by Eqs. (2), in order to get the
pulse width 300 ns with 250V, the output power of high voltage power required 0.375 watts, while considering the
stability of the circuit, high voltage power of 0.8 watts output should be chose. The prototyping board circuit increases
the inductance of high voltage circuit, resulting in the actual tests at the bottom of the pulse voltage is higher, about 40V,
and the simulation results of 15V. Printed circuit board should be designed and assembled in the follow-up work, the key
is to shorten the output loop line of high voltage, which will contribute to reduce the loop inductance.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
i i

® moon TLOT A
01000rOZ A0801
SUO0OVOZV NMOTOSV

Figure 7. Shortest high voltage output pulse width 20ns with low side driver

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 10256 102563F-4

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 3. CONCLUSIONS
According to the principle of high side and low side drive circuit, the output high voltage pulse width from 300 ns to ms
with amplitude 250 V and repeat frequency 1 kHz of MOSFET driver circuit has been designed. The pulse width
modulation is stable and reliable with low power consumption. In order to obtain high voltage pulse with narrower pulse
width, a narrow pulse generation circuit is designed by using low side drive circuit. The shortest output high voltage
pulse width of low side drive circuit is 20 ns with repeat frequency 1 kHz. Combining these two kinds of circuit, the
output pulse width of high voltage 250 V can be adjusted from 20 ns to ms. The whole circuit is driven by integrated
chip, this is the key to simplify the circuit structure and obtain a small volume and reliable adjustable high voltage pulse
power supply. The high voltage gated power supply can also be applied in laser range gating.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors are grateful for support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.11535014), the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61675165) and Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province
(No.2016JM1011) and Characteristic research of XAUT (No.2015TS012).

REFERENCES

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auto-gating power source in image intensifier,” Infrared Technology 34(3), 155-158 (2012).
[4] Cantrell, C. B. and Gilligan, L. H., “Circuit for gating an image intensifier,” US Patent, 4,952,793. (1990)
[5] Dunn, J., “Matching MOSFET drivers to MOSFETs,” Microchip Technology Inc, 4-5 (2004).
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