Compact pulsed power module for medical excimer longpulse laser

摘要

Some medical applications of Excimer Lasers need wavelengths of 308 nm and relatively long pulses of 100 ns. For effective Excimer Laser pumping high voltage pulses with a pulse duration of 100 ns and energies from a fraction of a joule to some 10 joules are necessary. This energy is deposited using a stimulated gas discharge into the Laser vessel. The generation of these pulses has been traditionally provided by Thyratron circuits. The limitations of the Thyratron circuit include short lifetime, slower repetition rates and heat generation; such a device does not fulfill the requirements of a modern Excimer Laser. Especially in Long Pulse Excimer Lasers there is impedance mismatch of the Thyratron circuit and the Laser. This resulting mismatch produces a high amount of reflected energy (up to 50%). The new Pulsed Power module controls and reuses the reflected energy for the next pulse. The new design has a very straight forward approach of a C-C transfer magnetic pulse compression network and has special tuning to produce longer pulses (auto pre-pulser design). The focus in this project is to achieve a compact and low cost design with high reliability.