Nanosecond Pulse Electroporator With Silicon Carbide mosfets: Development and Evaluation

IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2019 Dec;66(12):3526-3533. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2019.2907165. Epub 2019 Mar 25.

Abstract

Nanosecond electroporation of cell organelles is being studied since more than a decade, but it is still not entirely understood. Unique prototype hardware equipment and challenging measuring methods may also be a contributing reason for this situation. In the scope of this paper, we improve the performance of the high-voltage nanosecond pulse generator by introducing silicon carbide (SiC) mosfets. We developed a new high-voltage diode opening switch (DOS)-nanosecond pulse generator for laboratory use for in vitro experiments in electroporation cuvettes. Analysis and comparison of the most commonly used switching technologies in pulse generators were made. The device is designed by two parallel two-stage Marx-bank circuits with SiC mosfets that generates up to 200 A in the resonant network. A driving circuit for stable simultaneous switching of SiC mosfets was developed. The developed generator can deliver from 500 V to more than 6 kV, approximately 8 ns pulses to a 50 Ω load. Even though the amplitude of the output pulse is not as high as expected, the multiplication factor [Formula: see text] is still approximately 9, which is an improvement compared to the previously published linear DOS generator. Measurement and evaluation process is described in detail. Additionally, we emphasize on the size of an error that occurs during measurements.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Carbon Compounds, Inorganic / chemistry*
  • Electroporation / instrumentation*
  • Equipment Design
  • Nanotechnology / instrumentation*
  • Semiconductors*
  • Silicon Compounds / chemistry*

Substances

  • Carbon Compounds, Inorganic
  • Silicon Compounds
  • silicon carbide