Design of Power Supply for FRC Plasma Thruster Driven by Pulsed RMF

The Field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma thruster is a propulsion device driven by Pulsed Rotating magnetic field (RMF) to generate thrust. An FRC plasma thruster prototype has been built. The RMF antennas are designed with very high parameters namely a peak current of 4 kA, a resonant frequency of 150 kHz. Thus, a high voltage, high current pulsed power supply is required to satisfy the design. This article mainly presents the challenges and solutions in the design of the power supply system. First, 4 sets of power supplies are used to feed the RMF coils, which results in design parameters of 4 kA/3.5 kV for each power supply. Then, stray parameters control and loss analysis were done to improve power supply efficiency. Experimental tests are also performed on the system. In conclusion, the designed power supply system can satisfy the requirements of high operation parameters and high controllability.