High pulse rate ignition system

An ignition system for igniting fuel in a gas turbine or diesel engine comprising:

• a magnetic core coil assembly including a magnetic core comprising at least one tape wound toroid including a ferromagnetic amorphous metal alloy, a primary winding for low voltage excitation, and a secondary winding for high voltage output, the ferromagnetic amorphous metal alloy having a composition defined essentially by the formula:
• M70-85Y5-20Z0-20, subscripts in atom percent, where “M” is at least one of Fe, Ni and Co, “Y” is at least one of B, C and P, and “Z” is at least one of Si, Al and Ge;
• with the provisos that (i) up to 10 atom percent of component “M” can be replaced with at least one of the metallic species Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Cu, Zr, Nb, Mo, Ta, Hf, Ag, Au, Pd, Pt, and W, (ii) up to 10 atom percent of components (Y+Z) can be replaced by at least one of the non-metallic species In, Sn, Sb and Pb;
• and (iii) up to about one (1) atom percent of the components (M+Y+Z) can be incidental impurities;
• and
• driver electronics for applying a voltage to an electrode of a spark plug, wherein the driver electronics are associated with the core-coil assembly and are capable of supplying a current to the primary winding, the current resulting in a magnetomotive force that produces a magnetic field in the core in which energy is stored, wherein the driver electronics includes means for interrupting the current flow through the primary winding of the core-coil assembly causing the magnetic field within the core to collapse and thereby induce across the secondary winding a voltage that is carried to the electrode of the spark plug causing production of a spark igniting the fuel, and wherein the core-coil assembly and driver electronics are capable of operating with a rapid charge and discharge cycle to produce a high spark pulse rate.