Cockcroft-Walton Multiplier

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

Reply to
amdx
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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

Reply to
amdx

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.

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Reply to
Jamie

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.

Reply to
Robert Baer

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

Robert Baer wrote:

Reply to
Alan Peake

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

Reply to
JosephKK

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