High Voltage Capacitors Designed to Avoid Catastrophic Failure Modes

A major concern in the operation of high voltage capacitors is the failure mode at end of life. While progress has been made in this area at lower voltages, little has changed for high current capacitors operating above 30 kV in steady state and pulsed power applications. Based on a new development...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: MacDougall, F W, McKee, G L, Ennis, J B, Cooper, R A, Ness, R M, Reass, W A
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
CAPACITORS
CATASTROPHIC CONDITIONS
COLLATERAL DAMAGE
Electrical and Electronic Equipment
ENERGY
FAILURE(ELECTRONICS)
HIGH POWER
HIGH VOLTAGE
MAINTENANCE
OPERATION
POWER
PULSES
SOLUTIONS(GENERAL)
VOLTAGE
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Summary:A major concern in the operation of high voltage capacitors is the failure mode at end of life. While progress has been made in this area at lower voltages, little has changed for high current capacitors operating above 30 kV in steady state and pulsed power applications. Based on a new development at Maxwell Energy Products, Inc., it is now possible to build capacitors that can operate with a high degree of safety at high voltages. The capacitors reach the normal end of life, while avoiding the catastrophic failures, collateral damage, and unscheduled maintenance, associated with the normal failure mode of today s high voltage capacitors. This paper discusses the problem, capacitor failure modes, capacitor designs and describes a solution to the problem of catastrophic high voltage capacitor failures. See also ADM002371. 2013 IEEE Pulsed Power Conference, Digest of Technical Papers 1976-2013, and Abstracts of the 2013 IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science. Held in San Francisco, CA on 16-21 June 2013. U.S. Government or Federal Purpose Rights License.