Half bridge topology 500 V pulser for ultrasonic transducer excitation

Linas Svilainis; Andrius Chaziachmetovas; Vytautas Dumbrava

doi:10.1016/j.ultras.2015.01.014

Half bridge topology 500 V pulser for ultrasonic transducer excitation

Ultrasonics. 2015 May:59:79-85. doi: 10.1016/j.ultras.2015.01.014. Epub 2015 Feb 4.

Authors

Linas Svilainis¹, Andrius Chaziachmetovas², Vytautas Dumbrava²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electronics Engineering, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu str. 50, LT-51368 Kaunas, Lithuania. Electronic address: linas.svilainis@ktu.lt.
² Department of Electronics Engineering, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu str. 50, LT-51368 Kaunas, Lithuania.

PMID: 25682293
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultras.2015.01.014

Abstract

Application of half bridge topology for ultrasonic transducer excitation using long pulse trains is presented. The novelty of the approach is the high speed solution for a high side drive. A commercially available high speed digital isolator and a high speed MOSFET driver were combined to give the possibility to deliver fast driving signals to a high side N-channel MOSFET. The experimental investigation indicates that the output amplitude of the fundamental harmonic can reach 624 Vp-p for light loads and 552 Vp-p when driving 50 Ω loads. The operation frequency at such voltages can reach 10 MHz for unloaded or 50 Ω load condition and 6 MHz when driving capacitive 3000 pF loads. The output impedance is 13 Ω for voltages below 500 Vp-p and 16-26 Ω for voltages 500 Vp-p and above.

Keywords: Half bridge pulser; High voltage pulser; Transducer excitation; Ultrasonic measurements.