Fiber Optical Triggering Of A High Power Thyristor Switch

The optical triggering of a power switch formed by a set of thyristors connected in series has been realized by the flash of a lamp. The flash is guided through optical fibers towards interface triggering cards of the thyristor gates. A systematic control of the gate pulse amplitudes is operated by a threshold device in the triggering cards. A second fiber optical link connects this card to a control logic unit having a sound alarm. This fiber optical triggering system provides a new solution to the problem of triggering a set of high power thyristors. This system was developed for the generator circuit of our pulsed magnet delivering 40 teslas.