Nanosecond pulsed power sources having multi-core transformers
AssigneePulse Biosciences, Inc.
InventorsChaofeng Huang, Gregory P. Schaadt, Kenneth R. Krieg
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Abstract
Described herein are apparatuses and methods for applying high voltage, sub-microsecond (e.g., nanosecond range) pulsed output to a biological material, e.g., tissues, cells, etc., using a high voltage (e.g., MOSFET) gate driver circuit having a high voltage isolation and a low inductance. In particular, described herein are multi-core pulse transformers comprising independent transformer cores arranged in parallel on opposite sides of a substrate. The transformer cores may have coaxial primary and secondary windings. Also describe are pulse generators including multi-core pulse transformers arranged in parallel (e.g., on opposite sides of a PCB) to reduce MOSFET driver gate inductance.
Claims25
An apparatus for delivering pulsed electrical energy comprising:
- one or more multi-core pulse transformers, each multi-core pulse transformer comprising a first transformer core and a second transformer core, wherein the first transformer core includes one or more cables forming primary and secondary windings and the second transformer core includes one or more cables forming primary and secondary windings, wherein the primary windings of the first transformer core are coupled to the primary windings of the second transformer core and the secondary windings of the first transformer core are coupled to the secondary windings of the second transformer core;
- one or more high voltage switch drivers coupled to the primary windings of the first transformer core and the primary windings of the second transformer core;
- and
- one or more high voltage switches coupled to the secondary windings of the first transformer core and the secondary windings of the second transformer core,
- wherein the first transformer core and the second transformer core are arranged electrically in parallel between the one or more high voltage switch drivers and the one or more high voltage switches.
An apparatus for delivering pulsed electrical energy comprising:
- one or more high voltage switch drivers;
- one or more high voltage switches;
- and
- one or more multi-core pulse transformers, each multi-core pulse transformer comprising a first transformer core and a second transformer core on opposite sides of a substrate, wherein the first transformer core and the second transformer core each include one or more cables forming primary and secondary windings, wherein the primary windings of the first transformer core are coupled to the primary windings of the second transformer core and the secondary windings of the first transformer core are coupled to the secondary windings of the second transformer core,
- wherein the one or more high voltage switch drivers are coupled to the primary windings such that each primary winding is electrically parallel to other primary windings, and the one or more high voltage switches are coupled to the secondary windings such that each secondary winding is electrically parallel to other secondary windings.
A method of generating a pulsed output, the method comprising:
- emitting a driving pulse from a high voltage switch driver to a multi-core pulse transformer through a primary winding of a first transformer core and a primary winding of a second transformer core, wherein the primary winding of the first transformer core is coupled to the primary winding of the second transformer core and a secondary winding of the first transformer core is coupled to a secondary winding of the second transformer core;
- and
- receiving the driving pulse at a high voltage switch from the secondary winding of the first transformer core and the second transformer core.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.