High repetition rated semiconductor switch for excimer laser

A high-repetition-rated semiconductor switch using IGBTs (insulated gate bipolar transistors) was designed and tested. The switch has a ten series and two parallel construction. The operation at 6 kV charging voltage, 2200 A peak discharge current, and 1 kpps repetition was confirmed. When it was adapted to an actual excimer laser circuit with a two-stage MPC (magnetic pulse compressor), the performance of the laser was almost equal to that of using a thyratron. >