Abstract: “Recently, non-thermal food processing utilizing an underwater shockwave has been receiving much attention to provide nutritious and fresh foods at low cost. To generate the underwater shockwave, we propose a series-connected high voltage multiplier with bipolar structure. Unlike conventional Cockcroft-Walton voltage multipliers (CWVMs), the proposed multiplier amplifies the input voltage twice by connecting positive/negative multiplier blocks in series. Furthermore, these multiplier blocks are driven by high speed rectangular pulses. Owing to the series-connected bipolar topology, the proposed multiplier can achieve not only high conversion ratio but also high response speed. The operation principle and characteristic evaluation are described concerning the proposed multiplier. Simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE) simulations demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed multiplier.”

Keywords: bipolar topology, Cockcroft-Walton multipliers, high speed multipliers, non-thermal food processing, seriesconnected multipliers.