Development of a Rep-Rated Pulsed Power System Utilizing Electrochemical Prime Power

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory is developing a rep-rate charger for a 60-kJ capacitor module. The charger is lithium-ion battery powered and must charge up the capacitive load 50 times over a 5-min period with roughly 1 s between each charge cycle. This paper examines some aspects of the design: lithium-ion battery energy storage, hard switched dc-dc converter, high-voltage rectifier, and capacitive load with pulsed power switching. The lithium-ion batteries are arranged in 12, 16-cell, 50 V modules that are connected in series to form a roughly 600 V prime power supply. A hard switched dc-dc converter with full-bridge rectifier is used to charge the capacitor and a pulse forming network is used to discharge the capacitor into the load. This paper will discuss the system design and available test data.