Nanosecond square high voltage pulse generator for electro-optic switch

A scalable square high voltage pulse generator, which has the properties of fast rise time, fast fall time, powerful driving capability, and long lifetime, is presented in this paper by utilizing solid state circuitry. A totem-pole topology is designed to supply a powerful driving capability for the electro-optic (EO) crystal which is of capacitive load. Power MOSFETs are configured in series to sustain high voltage, and proper driving circuits are introduced for the specific MOSFETs configurations. A 3000 V pulse generator with similar to 49.04 ns rise time and similar to 10.40 ns fall time of the output waveform is presented. This kind of generator is desirable for electro-optic switch. However, it is not specific to EO switch and may have broad applications where high voltage fast switching is required. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3606447]