Piezoelectric Based Class-E Resonant Inverter for Driving Surface Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma
Conference
ECCE Asia
Abstract
The increasing development of distributed renewable energy enables the possibility of plasma-assisted local nitrogen fixation process in farms and individual households for fertilizer production. But traditional plasma generation requires large equipment and high voltages. Variable plasma impedance also makes it difficult to drive. This paper discusses the method and advantages to make plasma generation system smaller by integrating piezoelectric resonator into the driving converter and using it to drive surface dielectric barrier discharge reactors. We investigate performance of different plasma reactor designs, and characterize plasma impedance variance. We also build a very thin piezoelectric-based push-pull class E resonant converter with wide-range load driving ability, ZVS soft switching, and high voltage gain. By adopting the piezoelectric resonator, the inverter exhibits higher efficiency. The reactors can be integrated into PCBs with the converter, which can drive down cost. In general, the presented prototype plasma generation system is compact, simple-to-operate, and energy-efficient.
