DC ignition circuits for a high pressure vortex-water-wall argon arc lamp

Vortex water wall high-pressure argon arc lamps are used to generate intense light and are capable of operating at radiative efficiencies greater than 50%. These lamps are being considered for use in a pulsed DC mode of operation in the next generation of rapid thermal processing applications. Experiments have shown that the ignition potential and prebreakdown loading effect can be predicted reasonably well so long as the water wall conductivity is maintained at a low enough value. Reignition occurs infrequently therefore efficiency requirements for the ignition source are not important. The authors propose two circuit implementations of a high voltage Cockcroft Walton rectifier which can be used to trigger breakdown in the interelectrode gap region. One circuit implementation has been previously reviewed in the literature; therefore design equations are given only. Experimental results and design guidelines are presented for the second implementation.