Power Supply System for Vacuum-Arc Ion Source With Millisecond Pulse Length

This article deals with a vacuum-arc ion source, which generates high-intensity beams of metal ions. The power supply system largely determines the ion source parameters such as accelerating voltage, average current, and pulse current densities of the ion beam. This article proposes the power supply system for the vacuum-arc ion source intended for the generation of pulses with the length up to
$2000~\mu \text{s}$
at an accelerating voltage up to 50 kV. At the frequency of 50 Hz, the average ion current can reach 50 mA due to long pulses. This article considers the main design solutions for the generation of long pulses. A comparison is given to the novel power supply system based on insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and the earlier thyristor power supply.