chaper 1.1

• Production of DC high voltages :
• In the fields of electrical engineering and applied physics, high

voltages (d.c., a.c., and impulse) are required for several
applications.
• For example, electron microscopes and x-ray units require high d.c.
voltages of the order of 100 kV or more. Electrostatic precipitators,
particle accelerators in nuclear physics, etc. require high voltages
(d.c.) of several kilovolts and even megavolts. High a.c. voltages of
one million volts or even more are required for testing power
apparatus rated for extra high transmission voltages (400 kV system
and above).
• High impulse voltages are required for testing purposes to simulate
overvoltages that occur in power systems due to lightning or
switching surges.
• For electrical engineers, the main concern of high voltages is for the
insulation testing of various components in power systems for
different types of voltages, namely, power frequency a.c., high 1
• Different forms of high voltages mentioned above are classified as
1. high d.c. voltages
2. high a.c. voltages of power frequency.
3. high a.c. voltages of high frequency.
4.high transient or impulse voltages of very short duration such as
lightning overvoltages, and
5. transient voltages of longer duration such as switching surges.
• Normally, in high voltage testing, the current under conditions of
failure is limited to a small value (less than an ampere in the case of
d.c. or a.c. voltages and few amperes in the case of impulse or
transient voltages). But in certain cases, like the testing of surge
diverters or the short circuit testing of switchgear, high current testing
with several hundreds of amperes is of importance.
• Tests on surge diverters require high surge currents of the order of
several kiloamperes. Therefore, test facilities require high voltage and
high current generators. High impulse current generation is also
required along with voltage generation for testing purposes. 2
• GENERATION OF HIGH D.C. VOLTAGES:
• Generation of high d.c. voltages is mainly required in
research work in the areas of pure and applied physics.
Sometimes, high direct voltages are needed in insulation
tests on cables and capacitors. Impulse generator charging
units also require high d.c. voltages of about 100 to 200 kV.
Normally, for the generation of d.c. voltages of up to 100
kV, electronic valve rectifiers are used and the output
currents are about 100 mA. The rectifier valve require
special construction for cathode and filaments since a high
electrostatic field of several kV/cm exists between the
anode and the cathode in the non-conduction period. The
a.c. supply to the rectifier tubes may be of power frequency
or may be of audio frequency from an oscillator.
3
• Half and Full Wave Rectifier Circuits:
• Rectifier circuits for producing high d.c. voltages from a.c. sources
may be (a) half wave, (b) full wave, or (c) voltage doubler type
rectifiers. The rectifier may be an electron tube or a solid state device.
Now-a-days single electron tubes are available for peak inverse
voltages up to 250 kV, and semiconductor or solid state diodes up to
20 kV. For higher voltages, several units are to be used in series.
When a number of units are used in series, transient voltage
distribution along each unit becomes non-uniform and special care
should be taken to make the distribution uniform.
4
• Commonly used half wave and full wave rectifiers are shown in
Fig. 1. In the half wave rectifier (Fig.1a) the capacitor is charged
to Vmax, the maximum a.c. voltage of the secondary of the high
voltage transformer in the conducting half cycle. In the other
half cycle, the capacitor is discharged into the load. The value of
the capacitor C is chosen such that the time constant CRL is at
least 10 times that of the period of the a.c. supply. The rectifier
valve must have a peak inverse rating of at least 2Vmax. To limit
the charging current, an additional resistance R is provided in
series with the secondary of the transformer (not shown in the
figure).
• A full wave rectifier circuit is shown in Fig. 1b. In the positive
half cycle, the rectifier A conducts and charges the capacitor C,
while in the negative half cycle the rectifier B conducts and
charges the capacitor. The source transformer requires a centre
tapped secondary with a rating of 2V. 5
• For applications at high voltages of 50 kV and above, the rectifier valves used are of
special construction. Apart from the filament, the cathode and the anode, they
contain a protective shield or grid around the filament and the cathode. The anode
will be usually a circular plate. Since the electrostatic field gradients are quite large,
the heater and the cathode experience large electrostatic forces during the
nonconduction periods. To protect the various elements from these forces, the anode
is firmly fixed to the valve cover on one side. On the other side, where the cathode
and filament are located, a steel mesh structure or a protective grid kept at the
cathode potential surrounds them so that the mechanical forces between the anode
and the cathode are reflected on the grid structure only.
• In modern high voltage laboratories and testing installations, semiconductor
rectifier stacks are commonly used for producing d.c. voltages. Semiconductor
diodes are not true valves since they have finite but very small conduction in the
backward direction. The more commonly preferred diodes for high voltage rectifiers
are silicon diodes with peak inverse voltage (P.I.V.) of 1 kV to 2 kV. However, for
laboratory applications the current requirement is small (a few milliamperes, and
less than one ampere) and as such a selenium element stack with P.I.V. of up to 500
kV may be employed without the use of any voltage grading capacitors.
• Both full wave and half wave rectifiers produce d.c. voltages less than the a.c.
maximum voltage. Also, ripple or the voltage fluctuation will be present, and this
has to be kept within a reasonable limit by means of filters. 6
• Ripple Voltage with Half Wave and Full Wave Rectifiers
• When a full wave or a half wave rectifier is used along with the
smoothing condenser C, the voltage on no load will be the maximum
a.c. voltage. But when on load, the condenser gets charged from the
supply voltage and discharges into load resistance RL whenever the
supply voltage waveform varies from peak value to zero value. These
waveforms are shown in Fig. 2. When loaded, a fluctuation in the
output d.c. voltage δV appears, and is called a ripple. The ripple
voltage δV is larger for a half wave rectifier than that for a full wave
rectifier, since the discharge period in the case of half wave rectifier is
larger as shown in Fig. 2. The ripple δV depends on (a) the supply
voltage frequency f, (b) the time constant CRL and (c) the reactance of
the supply transformer XL. For half wave rectifiers, the ripple
frequency is equal to the supply frequency and for full wave rectifiers,
it is twice that value. The ripple voltage is to be kept as low as
possible with the proper choice of the filter condenser and the
transformer reactance for a given load RL.
7
• Fig 2 Input and output waveforms of half and full wave rectifiers
• A) Input sine wave
• B) Output with half wave rectifier and condenser filter
• C) Output with full wave rectifier and condenser filter
• D) Vmax, Vmean and ripple voltage and δV with condenser filter of a full a wave
8
• Voltage Doubler Circuits:
• Both full wave and half wave rectifier circuits produce a d.c.
voltage less than the a.c. maximum voltage. When higher d.c.
voltages are needed, a voltage doubler or cascaded rectifier
doubler circuits are used. The schematic diagram of voltage
doublers are given in Figs. 3a and b.
• In voltage doubler circuit shown in Fig.3a, the condenser C1 is
charged through rectifier R to a voltage of +Vmax with polarity as
shown in the figure during the negative half cycle. As the
voltage of the transformer rises to positive Vmax during the next
half cycle, the potential of the other terminal of C1 rises to a
voltage of +2Vmax.
9
• Fig 3 a Simple voltage doubler
• Fig 3 b Cascaded voltage doubler

10
• Thus, the condenser C2 in turn is charged through R 2 to 2Vmax. Normally the d.c.
output voltage on load will be less than 2V max, depending on the time constant C2RL
and the forward charging time constants. The ripple voltage of these circuits will be
about 2% for RL/r≤ 10 and X/r ≤ 0.25, where X and r are the reactance and resistance
of the input transformer. The rectifiers are rated to a peak inverse voltage of 2Vmax,
and the condensers C1 and C2 must also have the same rating. If the load current is
large, the ripple also is more.
• Cascaded voltage doublers are used when larger output voltages are needed without
changing the input transformer voltage level. A typical voltage doubler is shown in
Fig.3b and its input and output waveforms are shown in Fig. 3(c). The rectifiers R1
and R2 with transformer T1 and condensers C1 and C2 produce an output voltage of 2V
in the same way as described above. This circuit is duplicated and connected in series
or cascade to obtain a further voltage doubling to 4V. T is an isolating transformer to
give an insulation for 2Vmax since the transformer T2 is at a potential of 2Vmax above
the ground. The voltage distribution along the rectifier string R1, R2,R3 and R4 is made
uniform by having condensers C1, C2, C3 and C4 of equal values. The arrangement
may be extended to give 6V, 8V, and so on by repeating further stages with suitable
isolating transformers. In all the voltage doubler circuits, if valves are used, the
filament transformers have to be suitably designed and insulated, as all the cathodes
will not be at the same potential from ground. The arrangement becomes cumbersome
11
if more than 4V is needed with cascaded steps.
• Fig 3 c Waveforms of a.c voltage and the d.c output voltage on no-load of
the voltage doubler shown in Fig 3 b
• 1 a.c input voltage waveform, 2 a.c output voltage waveform without
condenser filter, 3 a.c output voltage waveform with condenser filter
• Fig 3 Voltage doubler circuits
• T1, T2 – h.v transformers; R1, R2, R3, R4 – rectifiers; 12
• Voltage Multiplier Circuits
• Cascaded voltage multiplier circuits for higher voltages are cumbersome
and require too many supply and isolating transformers. It is possible to
generate very high d.c. voltages from single supply transformers by
extending the simple voltage doubler circuits. This is simple and compact
when the load current requirement is less than one milliampere, such as for
cathode ray tubes, etc. Valve type pulse generators may be used instead of
conventional a.c. supply and the circuit becomes compact A typical circuit
of this form is shown in Fig.4a.
• The pulses generated in the anode circuit of the valve P are rectified and
the voltage is cascaded to give an output of 2nVmax across the load RL. A
trigger voltage pulse of triangular waveform (ramp) is given to make the
valve switched on and off. Thus, a voltage across the coil L is produced and
is equal to Vmax =I, where Cp is the stray capacitance across the coil of
inductance L. A d.c. power supply of about 500 V applied to the pulse
generator, is sufficient to generate a high voltage d.c. of 50 to 100 kV with
suitable number of stages. The pulse frequency is high (about 500 to 1000
Hz) and the ripple is quite low (<1%). The voltage drop on load is about
5% for load currents of about 150uA. The voltage drops rapidly at 13high
• Fig 4 a Cascaded rectifier unit with Fig 4 b Cockcroft-Walton
voltage pulse generator multiplier circuit
• P- Pulse generator
• Vb- D.C. supply to pulse generator 14
• Fig 4c Schematic current waveforms across the first and the last
capacitors of the cascaded voltage multiplier circuit shown in Fig 154b
• Fig 4d Voltage waveforms across the first and the last capacitor of the
cascaded voltage multiplier circuit shown in Fig 4b
16
• Voltage multiplier circuit using the Cockcroft-Walton principle is shown in Fig.
4b. The first stage, i.e. D1, D2, C1, C2, and the transformer T are identical as in
the voltage doubler shown in Fig. 3. For higher output voltage of 4.6,... 2n of
the input voltage V, the circuit is repeated with cascade or series connection.
Thus, the condenser C4 is charged to 4Vmax and C2n to 2nVmax above the earth
potential. But the volt across any individual condenser or rectifier is only
2Vmax.
• The rectifiers D1, D3, ...D2n-1 shown in Fig.4b operate and conduct during the
positive half cycles while the rectifiers D2, D4... D2n conduct during the negative
half cycles. Typical current and voltage waveforms of such a circuit are shown
in Figs.4c and 4d respectively. The voltage on C2 is the sum of the input a.c.
voltage,
• Vac and the voltage across condenser C1,VC1 as shown in Fig 4. The mean voltage
on C2 is less than the positive peak charging voltage (V ac + Vc1). The voltages
across other condensers C2 to C2n can be derived in the same manner, (i.e.) from
the difference between voltage across the previous condenser and the charging
voltage. Finally the voltage after 2n stages will be Vac (n1 + n2 + ...), where n1,
n2,... are factors when ripple and regulation are considered in the next rectifier.
The ripple voltage δV and the voltage drop ∆V in a cascaded voltage multiplier
17
• Fig 4e Ripple voltage δV and the voltage drop ΔV in a casacaded
voltage multiplier circuit shown in Fig 4 (b)
18
• Ripple In Cascaded Voltage Multiplier Circuits:
• With load, the output voltage of the cascaded rectifiers is less than 2n
Vmax, where n is the number of stages. The ripple and the voltage
regulation of the rectifier circuit may be estimated as follows.
• Let
• f= supply frequency,
• q = charge transferred in each cycle,
• Ii = load current from the rectifier,
• t1 = conduction period of the rectifiers
• t2 = non-conduction period of rectifiers, and
• δV = ripple voltage.
• Referring to Fig.3a, when load current I1 is supplied from condenser
C2 to load RL during the non-conducting period, the charge transferred
per cycle from the condenser C2 to the load during the non-conduction
period t2 is q, and is related as follows.
19
20
• Referring to Fig 4b, to find an expression for the total ripple voltage,
let it be assumed that all capacitances C1, C2,..., C2n be equal to C. Let
q be the charge transferred from C2n to the load per cycle.
21
22
• Here also, it is seen that most of the voltage drop is due to the lowest
stage condensers C1, C2, etc. Hence, it is advantageous to increase
their values proportional to the number of the stage from the top.
• For large values of n (≥5), and terms in Eq 3 will becomes small
compared to and may be neglected; then the optimum number of
stages for the minimum voltage drop may be expressed as
• where I is the load current.

• Thus, for a multiplier or a cascaded circuit with f= 50 Hz, C = 0.1uF,
Vmax = 100 kV and I=5 mA, the number of stages n ≈ 10.
• The regulation can be improved by increasing f, but an upper limit is
set by the high voltage appearing across the inductances and high
capacitor currents which are considerable. At present, the Cockcroft-
Walton type voltage multipliers are available using selenium rectifiers
and a.c. supply frequencies of 500 to 1000 Hz for output voltages of
more than one million volts and load currents of 30 mA. 23

chaper 1.1

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• Production of DC high voltages :

• In the fields of electrical engineering and applied physics, high

• Fig 3 b Cascaded voltage doubler

• where I is the load current.

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