A High Voltage DC Power Supply with Output Ladder Filter as a Lumped Delay Line for Reducing the Short-Circuit Fault Stress

High-voltage power supplies (HVPSs) are widely used in several industries. Short-circuit fault, is one of the most common faults that occur in HVPS's load. Common protection methods usually protect the load well. However, they do not protect the power supply itself as well as they should. In this paper, our goal was to provide a method to prevent the short circuit fault current from reaching the internal components of the HVPS. The focus of this article is on the protection of power supply rectifier diodes during short circuit faults. At first, the available methods to limit the fault current and protect the high-voltage power supplies were investigated and reviewed. Then, inspired by the theory of the transmission line, the ladder multilayer filter is presented as an alternative to the conventional low-pass filter. So, using software simulation, the performance of the ladder filter was evaluated and compared with the conventional filter. After confirming the proper performance of the ladder filter in delaying the propagation of the fault current, a prototype of the ladder filter was designed and implemented. Experimental results also confirm the effective performance of the designed filter.