2. High Voltage Switching Circuit Design
The circuit shown in Figure (1) was designed to drive a Pockels Cell for a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser within a 0 – 4.5 kV DC voltage. This circuit includes three main components, high voltage power supply, trigger unit and control unit. The high voltage power supply provides DC voltage to Pockels Cell in the range of 4.5 kV. The trigger unit was used to chop the DC voltage to zero when initiated by control unit. The trigger unit circuit consists of a series of avalanche transistors such as illustrated in Figure (1).