Development of a pulsed TWTA EPC

Design and testing results of an Electronic Power Conditioners (EPC) working for pulsed space traveling wave tube amplifier are introduced in this paper. This EPC adopts 42V unsteady bus voltage and outputs helix voltage up to 8kV, which can handle peak output power of more than 1100W (pulse width 25μs) and average output power of more than 170W. The working temperature ranges from -35 °С to +75 °С, and the efficiency attained under full-load conditions was over 89%.By modular design, the filament voltage, the positive grid voltage and the helix voltage can be adjustable independently in a certain range (5%-10%). The control and protection circuit of the EPC uses anti-fuse FPGA and adopts Triple Module Redundancy technique to increase resistance to SEU effects in radiation environment. The robustness of the design was verified through strict qualification tests.