Cockcroft-Walton Multiplier

Mar 04, 2008 5 Replies

I'm building a voltage tripler to charge a capacitor bank (20,000uf 450V) I see halfwave series and halfwave parallel multipliers. Are these both called Cockcroft-Walton multipliers or is it just the series type?



On this page;

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it says.



"The output V/I characteristic is roughly hyperbolic, so it serves well for charging capacitor banks to high voltages at roughly constant charging power."



The page shows a series multiplier, does that line apply to parallel multipliers to?



Should I build a series or parallel multiplier? My caps can handle the voltage of the parallel.



I'll be charging from 120vac, 20 amp outlet. I want to charge as fast as reasonable, I have 110 amp diodes so no concern there. But how do I size my multiplier caps? I have 20uf, 40 uf and 1800uf caps on hand. I suspect I'll want a series resistor to limit the current, but, do I want it at the ac input or between the tripler and the capacitor bank? Thanks, Mike


I put the circuits into LTspice and got my answers. I'm going with a series multiplier using 1800uf caps and a 5ohm resistor in series with the ac line. The caps charge to 450 volts in about 20 seconds. Mike

We have units at work that generate 1.5 M volts at 60 ma's using that form of rectifier with in a SF6 gassed vessel chamber.

http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5"

What i have seen, is that the caps get charged in parallel via high voltage resistors, and then spark gaps used to discharge them in series.

That sounds like a Marx generator - not the same principle as the C-W multiplier from memory. Alan

Robert Baer wrote:

Just one google with "cockroft-walton" will get you all the information you want.

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