Variable Frequency HV Source

I bet the right valve would handle that easily.

NT

I think you would need a variable capacitor, to tune the resonance of the primary coil. That may still not work that well over a 10:1 frequency range. Getting a typical Tesla coil to resonate at 100 KHz sounds tough, you might need to do some things to the secondary winding to cut the stray capacitance. Some kind of Pi winding, I think they call it.

Jon

How much current? Some HV transformer?

George H.

Robert,

I don't have a proved in design, but here are some ideas that might help.

Use a winding geometry that insures that the lowest self-resonant frequency of your transformer secondary is well above the 100 kHz range. One option might be to wind your transformer secondary in a single-layer on a polycarbonate or Plexiglas tube. I'd avoid PVC since it can develop carbonized tracks in the presence of ANY corona or partial discharge activity. Multiple "basket-wound" pies of different sizes (like large RF chokes) may also work. Note that the secondary of a CRT HV flyback transformer is typically designed to self-resonate at 60 - 80 kHz which may cause excessive output voltage problems if you need to drive through this frequency range. The secondary should be wound using inverter-grade polyamide-imide magnet wire since it's tough and extremely corona-resistant. Use silicone-insulated "primary wire" for the primary winding.

You don't want to use a tuned primary circuit (as in a Dual-resonant Solid State Tesla Coil/DRSSTC). And, it may be simpler to use a sinusoidal signal generator instead of a square wave source. You may be able to drive an inexpensive high-voltage linear amplifier such as an LTC6090 to drive your HV transformer through a suitable bypass cap. Good luck... :)