Comparative study of pulse trigger and DC trigger circuit for xenon flash lamp drivers

This paper presents an investigation of trigger circuits for xenon flash lamp drivers from the viewpoint of breakdown voltage, high-voltage isolation, and reliability. A comparative study of pulse trigger and DC trigger circuits is provided, focusing particularly on the circuit structure of each driver for high voltage isolation. Two kinds of trigger circuits for xenon flash lamp drivers are developed with a 2.5 kW (500 V/5 A) simmer circuit for maintaining the xenon lamp ionization. The structure of each trigger circuit is the series trigger type to obtain the advantages of the isolation structure. The outputs of the pulse and DC trigger circuits are measured as 21 kV 1.8 μs half-sine wave pulse and above 10 kV DC, respectively. The tests of xenon lamp ignition and the results of the comparison are discussed. The results prove that the both developed trigger circuits can be effectively used as xenon flash lamp drivers.