Phone: 607.533.3531 Fax: 607.533.3618 E-mail: adc@adc9001.com Web: www.adc9001.

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126 Ridge Road P.O. Box 187 Lansing, NY 14882 Advanced Design Consulting USA, Inc.
High Current MOSFET Polarity Switch
The synchrotron beam-line industry
utilizes high magnetic eld manipulators
called undulators to generate high
intensity x-rays from intense electron
beams. Rows of precisely positioned
magnets create a sinusoidal magnetic eld
that causes the electron beam to undulate,
which produces the desired x-rays. The
intense magnetic eld, nearly 1 Tesla,
is further shaped by electro-magnetic
correction coils mounted to the undulator,
in order to direct and inuence the shape
of the x-ray beam. These correction coils
typically carry high DC currents, up to 50
amps, but at low voltages.
The direction of the current in the correction coil must be reversible to allow the
greatest inuence on the magnetic eld. Power supplies with reversible polarity are
not commonly available. The high currents coupled with the need to reverse current
direction (polarity) leads to a design problem. Most contactors that can carry such
currents are usually large, expensive, and electrically noisy (to actuate) because they are designed to
interrupt high voltages as well. The correction coils are typically driven by low DC voltages between 10
and 24 volts. Servo ampliers have been used in the past to reverse the current ow in correction coils but
while these can control current precisely, the voltage is quite variable which can affect the total power
delivered to the coil. Custom power supplies have been designed (by Agilent) with reversible outputs but
these are expensive and require PC communications.
For these reasons a High Current MOSFET Polarity Switch was conceived by ADC for use in this
application. The switch consists of 4 MOSFET devices arranged in an H Bridge fashion. This H bridge
can be switched so that current is directed in either a forward or reverse direction to a load. The MOSFETs
that were chosen have very high current carrying capacity (160 amps) and very low on-state resistance (6
milli-Ohms). However, these are mounted on large heat sinks and do require ample cooling air to reduce
the heat that will be generated at the higher currents.
The switch requires a separate 24 v DC supply for control logic that resides on the card. Dual inputs for
direction and enable are provided at 5v TTL logic levels as well as 24 v DC logic levels. The gates of the
low side MOSFETs are controlled by simple transistors but the high side gates use a unique high side gate
control made by Maxim (MAX 1614EUA). The Switch can reverse the polarity on power supplies from 10
and 24 volts DC up to 80 amps. On card logic prevents both sides of the H bridge from turning on at the
same time.
The card is designed to t on a European standard 3U x 160 mm format and employs a DIN 41612, 32 pin,
Type D connector. This card will t in a 3U VME style card rack consuming 8H in width but will also t in
the Phoenix Contact SKBI 32/D single card holder. A separate terminal block is provided for stand-alone
mounting and ying lead connection. Special Power and Load terminal stud bolts are provided with M8
threads. Optional 24 VDC fans can be mounted to each MOSFET heat sink for cooling and wired to the 24
VDC supply. For very high currents, two MOSFETS are mounted back to back on each heat sink to cut the
on-state resistance in half.
LEDs are provided to indicate 24 vDC power, on board 8v Power, forward and reverse command direction
and forward and reverse conducting direction. A toggle switch is provided for local shut down and BNC is
provided for easy connection to a DVM for voltage monitoring.
Part Number
MPS-100