Inductive energy storage for pulsed power supplies is considered to have great potential because its energy density is 1 order of magnitude higher than that of capacitive one. Associating with the superconducting technology and the STRETCH meat grinder circuit, which proposed by the Institute of Advanced Technology, a superconducting inductive pulsed power supply (SPPS) circuit has been proposed by using an air-core high-temperature superconducting pulsed power transformer (HTSPPT) in our previous study. It can not only recapture the energy in the leakage flux and slow down the current change in inductors by using a capacitor, but also reduce the coil loss and the power requirement of the primary source by using superconducting inductors. However, it can be found that the SPPS may generate a large residual current during the discharging phase, which results in an adverse influence on the working frequency and the energy transfer efficiency of the whole system. This paper proposes a modified circuit based on the bridge current switching circuit and HTSPPT. The main principle of the circuit is that the recaptured energy in the capacitor and the residual energy in the secondary are used to precharge the primary inductor for the next cycle, which shortens the charging time, generates continuous current pulses, and improves the energy transfer efficiency. The procedure of the repetitive SPPS is analyzed in detail, and simulations are carried out to explain how the circuit works clearly.

The application of inductive energy storage in the generation of high-current pulses has attracted considerable attention during recent years. In this article, a new inductive high-current pulse generator circuit is proposed based on XRAM (MARX spelled backword) current multiplier converter concept and multistage pulse transformers by using power electronic switches. This circuit is capable to recover the residual energy and generate repetitive high-current pulses with a flexible output pattern. To verify the circuit operation, simulation and experimental results of a two-stage laboratory prototype are presented. The results confirm the theoretical analysis and show the validity of the converter scheme.

With the development of semiconductor switches in recent years, inductive energy storage has shown a good application potential in pulsed-power supplies. In our previous studies, a repetitive inductive pulsed-power supply (IPPS) circuit topology was proposed to generate continuous current pulses. An insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is used as the main switch to cut off the charging current in this topology. Limited by the current turning off ability of the main switch, it may encounter difficulties in expanding to higher charging currents. In this article, with the concept of inverse current commutation with semiconductor devices (ICCOS) switch, which is proposed by the German-French Institute of Saint Louis (ISL), an improved repetitive IPPS circuit topology is proposed by using a bridge current commutation unit as ICCOS. The thyristor acts as the main switch in the improved circuit and the charging current is turned off by a precharged capacitor. To turn off the charging current for the next cycle, the capacitor can be self-charged by the leakage flux of the pulse transformer and the back electromotive force from the load. Other than that, when the load current pulse reaches the required width, the residual energy of the system can be recovered by switching the inductor to the charging state. Simulation and comparative study show that the improved circuit is suitable for the generation of repetitive current pulses in high-energy systems.