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How Do High-Voltage Power Supplies Function?

A high-voltage power supply produces electric currents in excess of 200 volts. While most produce direct current, or DC, a few generate alternating current, or AC. Several designs exist that boost the voltage from a standard 110 or 220-volt outlet, or generate the high voltage directly with a mechanism. Industrial processes such as electrostatic spray painting and vapor deposition, and scientific equipment such as particle accelerators run on high-voltage power supplies.
  1. High Voltage Transformer

    • A transformer is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to boost voltage. It has two sets of copper wire coils mounted to a common iron frame. One serves as the primary, or input coil, and the other is the secondary, or output coil. If the secondary has twice as many turns of wire as the primary, the secondary has twice the primary's voltage. Transformers can boost voltage from 110 on the primary side to several thousand volts on the secondary. The input and output are both AC, so if the power supply produces DC, the transformer must have rectifiers on the secondary side to convert AC to DC.

    Voltage Doubler

    • A simple circuit consisting of a pair of diodes and capacitors will take an AC input and convert it to DC at double the voltage. By itself, this does not produce a very high voltage, but can increase the output of a high-voltage transformer. A high-voltage circuit called a Cockroft-Walton stack arranges several doublers in a series. This circuit can produce voltages in excess of 100,000 volts at low currents, without a transformer.

    Van de Graaff Generator

    • A Van de Graaff generator is a machine with a wide vertical rubber belt on rollers driven by an electric motor, and a pair of metal combs, one at each end of the belt. The combs come within a fraction of an inch of the belt. The comb at the bottom picks negative electric charges from the belt and sends them to a ground connection. The belt acquires positive charges. The top comb removes the positive charges and stores them on a metal sphere. The voltage difference between the sphere and the ground connection ranges between 200,000 to more than 1 million volts, depending on the device's size and construction.

    Tesla Coil

    • A Tesla coil is a special high-voltage transformer that uses the principle of resonance to generate more than 1 million volts of AC electricity. A standard high-voltage transformer feeds its input, which builds up a voltage in the Tesla coil's primary coil, a capacitor and a spark gap. When the voltage exceeds a critical value, the spark gap conducts, dumping the capacitor's energy into the primary, which induces a very high voltage in the secondary. Larger Tesla coils generate sparks of several feet through the air. Among other uses, Tesla coils generate artificial lightning to test the safety and durability of industrial electrical equipment.


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