> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) <1

Self-powered Gate Drive Circuitswith Optical Signal Isolation
for In-vehicle Marx Circuit of Ozonizer
Keisuke Kusaka, Member, IEEE, Yosuke Ouchi, Non-member, and
Jun-ichi Itoh, Senior-Member, IEEE
Abstract—Reducing the cost of a Marx circuit as a high-voltage
power supply for NOx decomposition for diesel vehicles isrequired. The Marx circuit with MOSFETs has an advantage insize compared to the Marx circuit with gap switches. However, theMarx circuit with MOSFETs needs gate drive circuits on the gateof each MOSFET. The gate signal and drive power must be
supplied to each gate with isolation in a low-cost way. However,
the transformer for the isolation with high-withstand voltage, suchas 10 kV or more, is typically high cost because of the low demand.
This paper proposes the self-powered gate drive circuit using
the charging path of the Marx circuit. The proposed gate drive
circuit only requires a low withstand voltage because the power
for the MOSFET on the n-th stage is supplied from the (n - 1)-thstage via a low-voltage transformer. Besides, the gate signal istransmitted through pairs of LEDs and photodiodes instead ofhigh-cost optical fibers. The proposed gate drive circuits aredeveloped and implemented into a prototype of the Marx circuitwith an output voltage of 4 kV. From the experiments, it isdemonstrated that the proposed drive circuits provide both drive
power and gate signal.
Index Terms—Driver circuits, pulse power systems, isolation
technology

I

I. INTRODUCTION

N recent years, nitrogen oxide (NOx) gas emitted by diesel
vehicles has been a critical issue because it accelerates global
warming. In response to this, the regulations on NOx gas
emission have been tightening in each country or region. Thus,
reducing NOx gas emissions is a crucial problem for
automotive companies. A lean NOx trap catalyst (LNT catalyst)
has been used to reduce the emission of NOx gas [1]. However,the performance of the catalyst deteriorates when the exhaustgas temperature is low. The performance degradation leads to
the risk of not satisfying emission regulations. In order toimprove the performance of the catalyst even in low exhaustgas temperature, mounting ozonizers onto the diesel vehicle isone of the solutions to help NOx decomposition [2–3]. The
generated ozone reforms NO into NO2, which is highly reactiveby the LNT catalyst.
This paragraph of the first footnote will contain the date on which you
submitted your paper for review.
K. Kusaka is with Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, Niigata,Japan (e-mail: kusaka@vos.nagaokaut.ac.jp).
Y. Ouchi is with Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, Niigata
Japan (e-mail: s195026@stn.nagaokaut.ac.jp).

The Marx circuit is used as a power supply for the ozonizer[4–7]. The Marx circuit outputs high voltage by switching theconnection of Marx capacitors on each cell from the parallel tothe series connection. Especially, silicon carbide (SiC)
MOSFETs have been used in the Marx circuit with the progressof SiC semiconductor technology in recent years instead of
mechanical switches or conventional silicon (Si) MOSFETs. A
SiC-MOSFET provides a good feature to the Marx circuit thata SiC-MOSFET achieves a fast switching of high-voltage
devices, such as 1.2 or 1.7 kV, due to their high electron
mobility and high bandgap voltage [8–9]. The fast switching
improves ozone production performance.
The Marx circuit with semiconductor switches has the gate
drive circuits for each MOSFET. Each gate drive circuit
requires an isolated power supply for the gate drive and isolated
signal transmission function, which communicates with thecentral controller to adjust the switching timings of the
MOSFETs. In the Marx circuit, high voltage isolation isrequired because the source terminal voltage of each MOSFET
becomes high when the Marx capacitors are connected in series.
For signal isolation, optocouplers are used in the field of lowvoltage power electronics. However, the typical value ofcommon-mode reduction (CMR) is less than 50 kV/s. The
CMR of the optocouplers is not enough to employ the SiCMOSFET, which turns on and off with less than ten
nanoseconds, for a 10-kV output voltage of the Marx circuit.
For high-voltage applications in power electronics, opticalfibers are also used. However, an n-stage Marx circuit requires
2n optical fibers 1 . In automotive applications, many opticalfibers are not a realistic option from a cost and reliability
perspective.
In terms of drive power of MOSFETs, the isolated DC-DC
converters with high withstand voltage between the primaryand secondary sides must be employed because the drain
voltage of the high-side MOSFETs rapidly varies due to theoperation of the Marx circuit. The typical withstand voltage
between the DC-DC converter is less than 5 kV. Thus, thereinforced insulated DC-DC converters with high-withstandJ. Itoh is with Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, Niigata, Japan(e-mail: itoh@vos.nagaokaut.ac.jp).
1
The classical Marx circuit, which has a switch, Marx capacitor, andresistances on each stage, needs only n optical fibers. However, the Marx circuitwith two switches on each stage is discussed from the standpoint of efficiency.

> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) <voltage must be used for the Marx circuit with 10 kV or more
output voltage. It is also not a realistic option from a cost
perspective. In [10–11], the self-powered gate drive system has
been proposed. The gate drive power is supplied with the gate
signal through a pulse transformer. However, the transformers
used in the j-th stage must have a withstand voltage j times
greater than the input voltage.
This paper proposes a self-powered gate drive circuit with a
low-voltage transformer, which supplies gate drive power from(n-1)-th stage to n-th stage, to reduce the required isolation
voltage and cost of the gate driver circuits. The low-voltage
transformer can be employed for the gate drive power supply inthe proposed circuit. Besides, the gate signal is communicatedby pairs of LEDs and photodiodes with an air gap of 50 mm.
Due to these gate drive circuit configurations, the cost of thegate drive power supply for the in-vehicle Marx circuit isreduced. The rest of this paper is as follows. First, the circuit
configuration of the Marx circuit and its gate drive circuits are
explained. Next, the design of the transformer for the power
supply is discussed. Finally, a 4-kV prototype with the proposed
gate drive circuits is demonstrated.

2

Stage nStage (n-1)

Dn-1
Stage 1

Cn-1

OpticalreceiverGate
driver

D1

C1

OpticalreceiverGate
driverVout

SD(n-1)

Drive
power

Drive
power

Power
Suppl ySD1

Vin

Capacitive
load

Trn-1

Tr1

(a)

Cout

OpticalreceiverGate
driverSC(n-1)

OpticalreceiverGate
driverSC1

Main crcuitController side
FPGA

Discharging signal(n) Charging signal(n)II. GATE DRIVE CIRCUIT FOR MARX CIRCUIT
A. Circuit Configuration
Fig. 1 shows the n-stage Marx circuit with the proposed gate
drive circuits. The Marx circuit has multiple stages with two
MOSFETs, the diode and the Marx capacitors. When theswitches for a charge SCn turns-on, the Marx capacitors areconnected in parallel. The Marx capacitors are charged by the
input voltage Vin through the diodes Dn. When the switches fora discharge SDn are on, the Marx capacitors are connected inseries. The high voltage is applied to the load. The MOSFETs
are turned on or off by the gate drive circuits connected between
the gate and source terminal. The gate drive circuits need
auxiliary power with the isolation for the gate drive because thesource terminals of the MOSFETs are dynamically changed by
the switching.
In the proposed circuit, the drive power is supplied from thetransformers, which are connected to the low-level stage. The
rush current for charging operation is suppressed by thetransformers because the transformers are on only the charging
path of the Marx circuit. In other words, the discharging
operation of the Marx circuit is not affected by the transformer.
Besides, the gate signal must be transmitted from the central
controller on a low-voltage side to the gate drive circuits withsignal isolation. The isolation distance between the controller
on the low-voltage side and the high-voltage side must be
ensured to satisfy the safety standard, such as IEC60664-1.
B. Gate Drive Circuits with Isolation
Fig. 1(b) shows the details of the gate drive circuits of theMarx circuit, as shown in Fig. 1 (a). Fig. 1(b) is illustrated byfocusing on one set of switches SCn, SDn, and its gate drive
circuits. In Fig. 1(b), the thick wires are part of the main path of
the Marx circuit. Other lines are for gate drive. Fig. 1(c) shows
the prototype. On the main circuit side, each PCB has a three-

LED

GC1

GD1

GCn

GDn

Air gap for isolation (50 mm)
Bootstrap diode

Trn

SDn

CBn

Vg sDn

GDn

GCn
Optical receiver LPF & Amp.

LPF & Amp.
Optical receiver

SCn

Gate driver for SDn
16V

Tr(n-1)Gate driver for SCn

VgsCn

Main circuit side(b) Self-powered gate drive circuits and signal transmission with
optical isolation
Photo diodes
LEDs

Air gap: 50 mm
Main circuit side

Controller side

Marx circuit
Gate drivers for SCn and SDn

Amplifiers for LED(c) Prototype for signal transmission with isolation
Fig. 1. Marx circuit with proposed gate drive circuits.

> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) <stage Marx circuit and six gate drive circuits with the opticalreceivers. On the controller side, six amplifiers and LEDs aremounted on each PCB. On the low-voltage side, the controller
outputs two kinds of signals. One is the charging signal for the
MOSFETs SCn. The other is the discharging signal for the
MOSFETs SDn. The signals are amplified to drive the LEDs,
which emit invisible light. The optical signal is transmitted
from the controller to each gate drive circuit via an air gap of
50 mm. The air gap plays a role in electric isolation. The opticalreceiver on each gate drive circuit detects the optical signal withthe photodiode, which has the same wavelength band as the
wavelength of LED. The detected gate signal is amplified andused to drive the MOSFETs in the gate drive circuit. The pairsof LED and photodiode are cost-effective in comparison with
optical fiber, mainly for automotive applications. The required
footprints of the diodes and LEDs do not significantly change
from the transmitter and receiver of the optical fibers. However,it should be noted that the degree of freedom of installation ofLEDs and photodiodes is inferior to that of the optical fiber
because the LEDs and photodiodes must be placed on the sameplane.
The drive power for SCn and SDn is supplied through thetransformers Tr(n-1), as shown in Fig. 1 (b). At the start of thecharging operation of the Marx circuit, the rush current flows
through Dn-1, Cn-1, Tr(n-1), and SC(n-1). The current charges theMarx capacitor during the charging operation. The induced
voltage on the secondary side of Tr(n-1) is rectified in the gate
drive circuit. The DC voltage is clamped and maintained at 16
V by the Zener diode.
Besides, the DC line of the gate drive circuit for SC(n-1) isconnected to the drive circuit for SD(n-1) through the bootstrap
diode. During the charging operation, the current for the drive
flows through the bootstrap diode and bootstrap capacitor C B(n1), Tr(n-1), and SC(n-1).
The gate drive circuit for SDn is driven using the charge ofthe bootstrap capacitor CB(n-1) as a power supply. It is the same
operation as the bootstrap gate-drive circuit for inverters [12–13]. Note that the bootstrap diode plays a role in preventing thereverse voltage to the gate drive circuit from the main circuit.
Thus, the reverse blocking voltage of the bootstrap diode mustbe higher than the DC voltage of each Marx capacitor.
Note that the isolated power supply is required in the gate
drive circuit for only SC1 and SD1 for a start-up of the Marx
circuit. The required isolation voltage for these switches isrelatively small because the maximum voltage potential of thesource terminals of the SD1 and SC1 is equal to the input voltage
and zero, respectively.

At the start-up of the Marx circuit, only the two switches
SC1 and SD1, with the isolated gate drive circuits, areswitched. The switching of SC1 and SD1 provides the drive
power for SC2 and SD2. Then the drive power is sequentially
supplied to the switches on the highest stage: SCn and SDn.
C. Comparison of the Number of Gate Drive Supplies
In this section, the number of isolated gate drive supplies iscompared between the conventional DC/DC converters and the
proposed isolation topology. For comparison, it is assumed that3

the volume of the proposed topology, which consists of thetransformer and the rectifier, for each MOSFET is equivalent tothe volume of the isolated DC/DC converter, which ensures theisolation of the input voltage of the Marx circuit. In addition, it
is assumed that the isolation for the MOSFETs on the j-th stage
is ensured by the series connections of the isolated DC/DC
converters in the conventional system. Note that manufacturers
do not guarantee the series connections of the isolated DC/DC
converter. In the ideal condition, the common-mode voltage isequally divided among the series-connected DC/DC converters.
On the contrary, the common-mode voltage is not equallydivided because the parasitic capacitance between a primary
and a secondary winding has a variation in practice.
First, the required number of isolated power supplies for theconventional system Nc is (1) for the n-stage Marx circuit,
where n ≥ 2.
n

N c =  ( 2 j − 1)

(1)

j =2

On the other hand, the required number of isolated power
supplies of the proposed topology is Np = 2(n - 1). For thisreason, the volume of the proposed drive power supplies will
be smaller than the conventional DC/DC converters connected
in series. Note that the isolated power supply is required in thegate drive circuit for SC1 and SD1 regardless of the proposed orconventional method, as described above. Thus the power
supplies for these switches are not counted into Nc and Np.
III. DESIGN OF THE TRANSFORMER USED FOR POWER SUPPLY
A. Modeling of Charging Current
In this section, the charging current for the gate drive circuit
is modeled to design the transformer in order to supply therequired power for gate drive circuits. The required gate drive
power for each MOSFET is(2),
Pdrive = f swQgVgs
where fsw is the switching frequency of the Marx circuit, Qg isthe total gate charge of each MOSFET, and Vgs is the gatesource voltage during turn-on. The transformer supplies a sumof twice the power of (2) and power loss on the gate drive andoptical receiver.
Fig. 2 shows the equivalent circuit at the start of the charging
operation of the Marx circuit. In this consideration, it ist=0

L1leak

L2leak

i2(t)

i1(t)
LM
VD

Vin

R
VCn

Cn

Fig. 2. Marx circuit with proposed gate drive circuits.

RGD

> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) <assumed that the primary inductance equals the secondary
inductance for simplicity. The equivalent circuit consists of the
input voltage Vin, the T-type equivalent circuit of thetransformer Trn, the Marx capacitor Cn of each stage, the onresistance R of the MOSFETs, and the load resistanceemulating the gate drive circuit RGD. The switch turns on at t =0 at the start of charging mode. Here, the output power isexpressed as(3),
PGD = f swVD  i2(t ) dt
where PGD is the supplied power to the gate drive circuits, fsw isthe switching frequency of the Marx circuit, VCn is the Marx
capacitor voltage, VD is the DC voltage of the gate drive circuit,i2(t) is the current flowing on the secondary winding of thetransformer in each stage.
The circuit equation is developedd ( i1 − i2 ) 1
di1
+ LM
+
i1dt + Ri1
Vin − VCn( 0) = Lleak 1
dt
dt
Cn 


d ( i2 − i1 )di+ Lleak 2 2
VD = LMdtdt
 LM = k L1 L2(4)

during the transient state, assuming the voltage drop of theMarx capacitor due to the previous discharging operation,
where R is the equivalent resistance emulating the power
consumption on the gate drive circuits, L1 is the primary
inductance, L2 is the secondary inductance, LM is the mutual
inductance of the transformer, and VCn(0) is the Marx capacitor
voltage after the voltage drop by the discharging operation.
From (4), the secondary current i2(t) during the transient stateisi2(t ) =(k Vin − kVD − VCn ( 0)



R
−
Cn  2 

2

)e

−

R
t
2

2

sin

 R 
1
kVD
−
t
 t−
 Cn  2 
L1leak + LM

(5),where  isdeveloped.
1
1

CnVout _ theory + Cout Vin − ( n − 1)VFD  =  Cn + Cout Vout
n
n


(8),

where Vout is the output voltage of the capacitive load Cout. From(8), the output voltage of the Marx circuit is
Vout =

CnVout _ theory + nCout Vin − ( n − 1)VFD (9).

( Cn + nCout )As a result, the voltage drop of the capacitors after thedischarging operation in each stage is
Vout _ theory − VoutVcn( 0) = Vin −

(10).

n

B. Design of Inductance for Transformer
The minimum inductance of the transformer is calculated
from the current (5). The current i2(t) is approximated to solve
the required inductance L analytically. As the approximation,
the voltage drop by the on-resistance of the MOSFETs is
ignored. Moreover, the proportional term to t in (5) is also
ignored because the charging period of the Marx capacitor is inseveral microseconds. The effect of the proportional term isrelatively small compared to the resonant term. The
approximated current isi2(t ) (k Vin − kVD − VCn ( 0)



R
− 
Cn  2 

2

)e

−

R
t
2

sin

1
t
 Cn

(11),

Figure 3 shows the calculated current i2 expressed as (5) and
its approximated current expressed as (11). In Fig. 3, the time
when the approximated current takes the maximum and the
maximum value aret2 
imax 

 = ( L1leak + LM − kLM )(6),
VD is the output voltage for gate drive circuits, and L1leak is theleakage inductance of the primary inductance L1.
The initial voltage of the Marx capacitor before the charging
operation VCn(0) is needed for the calculation of the i2(t). The
voltage drop of each Marx capacitor is determined by the
number of the stage. The theoretical output voltage without aload is4( L1leak + LM − kLM )Cn 
2

(12),

k (Vin − kVD − VCn (0) )L1leak + LM − kLM  R 
− 
Cn
2

(13).

2

The time when the current takes the zero ist1  ( L1leak + LM − kLM )Cn (14).

The supplied power PGD for two gate drive circuits isapproximately calculated from the integral highlighted by the
diagonal line in Fig. 3 with the base of t1 and height of imax.

j =1

(7),

where VFD is the forward voltage of the diodes, j is the numberof times it passes through the diode. The forward voltage of thediodes should be considered because the voltage drop affects
the charging current. During the charging period, the Marx
capacitors are charged through multiple diodes. As a result, theMarx capacitor voltage of the upper stage is dropped due to theforward voltage drop of the diodes. When the capacitive load
Cout, such as an ozonizer, is connected to the output of the Marx
circuit, the output voltage is dropped due to the conservation
law of the amount of charge. From the conservation law, (8) isCurrent waveforms on thesecondary windings [A]n −1

Vout _ theory = nVin − VFD  j

6Theoretical current waveformby Eq. (5)Approximated current waveformby Eq. (11)Integral value of current used in design

imax

4
2
0

0

t2

1

t1
Time [s]Fig. 3. Charging current and its approximation.

2

3

> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) <The supplied power to the secondary side is approximated as(15).
k (Vin − kVD − VCn (0) )PGD = f swVout( L1leak + LM − kLM )Cn 
2
L1leak + LM − kLM  R 
− 
Cn
2
(15)
Since the self-inductance is the sum of leakage inductanceL1leak and mutual inductance LM, the required self-inductance forthe transformer is transformed from (15).
2(16)
Cn R 2 PGD
L1 =2
2
4 (1 − k 2 )  PGD− f swCnVout k (Vin − kVD − VCn (0) ) 





never flows on the transformer at this time. Thus, the cause of
the positive current is not known. However, it is possible thatthe noise caused by the high dv/dt at the start of the charging
operation is interlinked on the current probe and observed as acurrent.
Fig. 6 shows the relation between the power and primary
inductance when the gate drive voltage VD is 16 V. The
theoretical line calculated by (15) is drawn by the solid line andthe simulation result is plotted by an open triangle. The circuit
simulator PLECS (Plexim) is used for the simulation. The
calculation and experimental results show that higherCharging period

Charging period

Discharging period

Output voltage

IV. EXPERIMENTS OF MARX CIRCUITIn this chapter, the Marx circuit with the proposed gate drive
circuits is demonstrated. Table I shows the specifications of the
prototype.
A. Steady-State Operation
Fig. 4 shows the output voltage of the seven-stage Marx
circuit with the proposed gate drive circuits. As the output
voltage of the Marx circuit, an output voltage of 4 kV isobtained. Figs. 4 (b) and (c) are the expanded waveforms
focusing on the positive and negative-going edge. The output
voltage rises and falls within 100 ns. These results show that the
proposed gate drive circuits are operating with high-output
dv/dt.
Fig. 5 shows the charging operation of the gate drive circuit.
At the start of the charging operation, the current flows on thesecondary winding of the transformer as expressed by (5). Notethat the positive current of i2 at the start of the charging period
is an unexpected current. Theoretically, the positive current

5

4 kV
1kV/div

02 µs/div(a)

Output voltage pulse

Charging period

Discharging period

Output voltage

4 kV

0

400 ns/div(b)

Positive-going pulse

Discharging period

Charging period

4 kV

Output voltage

TABLE ISPECIFICATIONS OF PROTOTYPEParameters

Symbols

Value

Input voltage

Vin

600 V

GDU voltage

VD

16 V

Marx capacitorCn0.22 µF

Switching frequency

fout

10 kHzon-resistance of MOSFETs

R

0.5 W

Coupling coefficient

k

0.95

Primary leakage inductance

Lleak1(1-k)L1

Secondary leakage inductance

Lleak2(1-k)L1

Primary inductor

L1

10.5 µH

Magnetic core for trans.
Number of stage
Discharging time

PC44 (TDK)

LED

7
6 µs
SFH4542 (OSRAM)

PhotodiodeSFH2505 (OSRAM)MOSFETs

C3M0065100J (CREE)

Load

n

1 kV/div

0

400 ns/div(c) Negative-going pulse
Fig. 4. Output voltage of the Marx circuit.

Discharging period
15V
0Charging period
Gate-source voltage VgsC2
Secondary current -i2

0

5 A/div

7.7 × 6.0 × 4.8 mm
7.7 × 6.0 × 4.8 mm

Cout

500 pF0

1kV/div

Output voltage
1 µs/div

Fig. 5. Power supply for gate drive circuit via transformer at the charging
period. The gate drive power is supplied using the charging current of the Marx
capacitor.

> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) <Gate source voltage of SD2

1.5
Supplied power
to the secondary side W

6

Theoretical curve

15V

0

1.0

Simulation

0.5

20 V/div

20V/div
15 V

0Gate drive voltage for SD2

Experimental result

Input voltage Vin

100 V/div

0.0 0

5

10
15
25
20
Primary inductance µH
Fig. 6. Relation between supplied power to the gate drive circuit and primary
inductance of the transformer.

0

Start-up
Fig. 7. Start-up operation of the Marx circuit and the gate drive circuits.

inductance allows for supplying more power. This is because
the current conduction time on the secondary side increases.
The simulation results show good agreement with thetheoretical curve. It means that the effects of the approximation
related to (15) can be ignored. The obtained power in theexperiments is slightly smaller than the simulation and thetheoretical curve. In the above experiments, an inductance of
10.5 H is used because the required gate drive power is lessthan 1.0 W for two MOSFETs.
B. Start-up Operation
Fig. 7 shows the start-up operation of the Marx circuit andthe gate drive circuit. The start-up operation is tested with the
reduced input voltage and reduced number of cells because of
the limitation of the output current of the DC power supply. At
40 ms, an input voltage of 100 V is rapidly applied to the inputof the Marx circuit. The MOSFETs SD1 and SC1 simultaneously
start to switch because the gate drive circuits for SD1 and SC1
have the isolated DC-DC converter. Due to the charging currentof the Marx capacitor C1 by the switching of SD1 and SC1, The
gate drive power is supplied through the transformer Tr 1. Afterabout 160 ms from the start-up, the gate drive voltage for S D2
reaches the nominal voltage: 15 V. Then, the drive power issequentially supplied to the upper cell. These results show the
proposed gate drive circuit does not need the isolated DC-DC
converter except at the lowest stage.
C. Optical Isolation of Gate-drive Signal
Fig. 8 shows the gate signal transmission using LEDs andphotodiodes. The LEDs and photodiodes are separately placedwith an air gap of 50 mm. The air gap ensures the isolation
distance between the controller on the low-voltage side and thegate drive circuits. The charging and the discharging signal aretransmitted by the LEDs and photodiodes, as shown in (a). Fig.
8 (b) is the expanded waveforms of (a). The gate-source voltage
for charging and discharging is about 500 ns delayed from theoriginal signal from the controller.

Charging signal GC10

Gate-source voltage VgsC1
0

Discharging signal GD1

0Gate-source voltage VgsD1
10 V

0
(a)

20 µs/div

Signal transmission for charging and discharging with optical isolation.

10 V
0
0

Charging signal GC1
Gate-source voltage VgsC1
Discharging signal GD1

0500 nsGate-source voltage VgsD1
0

1 µs/div

500 ns(b) Expanded waveforms of (a)Fig. 8. Optical gate-signal transmission via LED and photodiode withisolation.

Marx circuit. The proposed gate drive circuit only requires a
low withstand voltage because the power for the MOSFET on
the n-th stage is supplied from the (n - 1)-th stage via a lowvoltage transformer. Besides, the gate signal is transmitted
through pairs of LEDs and photodiodes instead of optical fibers.
The proposed gate drive circuits are developed andimplemented into a prototype of the Marx circuit with an output
voltage of 4 kV. From the experiments, it is demonstrated thatthe proposed drive circuits provide both drive power and gate
signal.

REFERENCES[1]

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the self-powered gate drive circuits to reduce thecost for the Marx circuit of ozonizers have been proposed. The
Marx circuit does not need an isolated auxiliary power supply
for the gate drive circuits. The proposed self-powered gate drive
circuits receive the drive power from the charging path of the

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Keisuke Kusaka (S’13–M’16) was bornin Miyagi, Japan in 1989. He received his
B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical,
electronics and information engineeringfrom Nagaoka University of Technology,
Niigata, Japan in 2011, 2013, respectively.
From 2015 to 2016, he was with Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology in
Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland as a trainee. In 2016, hereceived his Ph.D. degree in energy and environment sciencefrom Nagaoka University of Technology. From 2016 to 2018,he was a postdoctoral researcher with Nagaoka University ofTechnology, Niigata, Japan. From 2018 to 2021, he was an
assistant professor with the same university. He is currently atenure track lecturer at Nagaoka University of Technology. His
current research interests include the areas of wireless powertransfer systems and high-frequency converters. Dr. Keisuke isa member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan andSociety of Automotive Engineers of Japan. Dr. Keisuke
received the second prize paper award in IPEC-Niigata 2018.

7

Yosuke Ouchi was born in Japan, in 1997.
He received his B.S. degree from National
Institute of Technology, Ibaraki College,
Japan in 2019. In 2021, he received his M.S.
degree in electrical, electronics andinformation engineering from Nagaoka
University of Technology, Niigata, Japan.
Jun-ichi Itoh (M’04, SM’13) was born inTokyo, Japan, in 1972. He received his
M.S. and Ph.D. degree in electrical andelectronic systems engineering from
Nagaoka University of Technology,
Niigata, Japan in 1996, 2000, respectively.
From 1996 to 2004, he was with Fuji
Electric
Corporate
ResearchandDevelopment Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. He waswith Nagaoka University of Technology, Niigata, Japan as an
associate professor. Since 2017, he has been a professor. His
research interests are matrix converters, dc/dc converters,
power factor correction techniques, energy storage system andadjustable speed drive systems. He received IEEJ Academic
Promotion Award (IEEJ Technical Development Award) in2007. In addition, he also received Isao Takahashi PowerElectronics Award in IPEC-Sapporo 2010 from IEEJ, 58th
OHM Technology Award from The Foundation for Electrical
Science and Engineering, November, 2011, Intelligent Cosmos
Award from Intelligent Cosmos Foundation for the Promotionof Science, May, 2012, and Third prize award from Energy
Conversion Congress and Exposition-Asia, June, 2013. Prizes
for Science and Technology (Development Category) from theCommendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, April
2017. Dr. Itoh is a senior member of the Institute of ElectricalEngineers of Japan, the Society of Automotive Engineers ofJapan and the IEEE.