A fast circuit for polarizing Langmuir probes

A circuit that has been designed and tested for polarizing electrostatic Langmuir probes in a multifilament plasma device (MPD) is described. The circuit provides a sawtooth waveform whose duration ranges between 40 and 600 mu s, and repetition rate ranges between 140 and 1400 Hz. Output voltage swings up to +32 V with a load current of 2 A. The main advantages of the proposed circuit, compared with similar ones, are: better slew rate, larger bandwidth, higher output current, thermal and short-circuit protection, low cost, and ease of construction.<
>