Analysis and charge time estimation for capacitor voltage charger

Capacitor chargers are widely used in xenon tube based photo flash lamps, medical applications and pulsed lasers. These type of power supplies are operating from a low power source to provide pulsed high voltage high current output. Typically, a flyback dc-dc converter operating in critical Discontinuous Conduction Mode is used to charge bulk capacitor. The time required to charge output bulk capacitor and input average current are the parameters of most interest. This paper presents a mathematical model for capacitor chargers to estimate required charge time depending on various system parameters. An Excel and VB based tool is designed to estimate time required to charge the output capacitor for given operating conditions. Simulated, experimental and model results are presented in the paper.