Plasma — High-Voltage Pulse Generators for Plasma Research

The challenge

Plasma exists in many states — glow discharge, streamer, spark, arc — and which state you are in determines what the plasma does. The difference between a useful non-thermal discharge and a destructive arc is not always large, and it is almost always a function of how the pulse is delivered.

Plasma applications also span an extraordinary range of operating conditions. A cold atmospheric plasma jet for wound healing or surface activation operates in the milliamp range — low current, low energy, delicate. A plasma focus experiment, or any high-power, fast-switching pulsed setup, operates in the kiloamp range — currents thousands of times larger, delivered in microseconds or less. Between these extremes sit dielectric barrier discharges, plasma-assisted combustion, plasma thrusters, arc lamp drivers, plasma chemistry reactors, and a long list of research configurations that each live at their own point on the current axis.

For plasma research, the challenge is reproducibility. The discharge needs to initiate at the same point, develop the same way, and produce the same reactive species population from pulse to pulse. Experimental data built on inconsistent discharges is difficult to interpret and impossible to scale.

For plasma applications, the challenge is control: sustaining a specific plasma regime at a specific power level without transitioning into an unwanted state, and doing it consistently over time. At the low-current end, that means tight amplitude control in a regime sensitive to small perturbations. At the high-current end, it means delivering kiloampere pulses with precise timing and repeatable waveforms. In both cases — and in applications that require both in combination — the generator defines what is possible.

The mechanism

Plasma is initiated and sustained by the electric field the pulse creates in the gas. What the pulse looks like — how fast it rises, how long it lasts, how it falls, and how it repeats — determines the ionisation dynamics and therefore the plasma state.

Rise time is particularly significant. A fast-rising pulse drives the electric field through the gas before the ionic species have time to fully respond. This preferentially accelerates electrons — which are light and mobile — while leaving the heavier ions relatively stationary. The result is a non-equilibrium plasma: high electron energy, low bulk gas temperature. This is the regime that produces reactive species efficiently without thermal damage to substrates or electrodes, and it is where most plasma processing and plasma medicine applications operate. A slower rise time allows the field to build more gradually, the discharge develops differently, and the plasma characteristics shift accordingly. Rise time is not just a waveform parameter — it is a plasma chemistry control variable.

Burst mode addresses a different problem: how to deliver energy to a plasma continuously without arc formation or thermal runaway. A burst — a packet of pulses at high repetition rate, followed by a defined off-time — allows the gas to partially recover between bursts. Metastable species decay, ion populations redistribute, and the electrode surfaces cool fractionally. The plasma can be sustained at average power levels that would cause arc formation under continuous excitation. Burst parameters (pulses per burst, intra-burst frequency, burst repetition rate) become design variables for controlling plasma behaviour independently of peak field strength.

Where we fit

Plasma work requires a generator that treats pulse shape as a first-class parameter — not something fixed by the hardware and worked around by the experimenter.

Adjustable rise times mean the transition from off to full field strength is a variable you set, not a constant you accept. Research groups studying streamer-to-glow transitions, optimising reactive oxygen and nitrogen species generation, or characterising breakdown thresholds need this as an independent control variable. Application engineers tuning a surface treatment or plasma jet system need to shift the operating point without changing the electrode geometry.

Burst mode gives independent control over peak field strength and average power. You can maintain the field amplitude needed for the target plasma state while reducing the duty cycle to manage thermal load — on the electrodes, in the gas, and in the generator itself. Burst parameters are programmable: pulses per burst, intra-burst frequency, burst repetition rate, and off-time can all be set independently.

The current range is not fixed. VITAVE systems operate from milliamps — cold atmospheric plasma, DBD, plasma jets, plasma medicine devices — through to kiloamps for high-power plasma physics, high-current pulsed switching applications, and plasma focus experiments. This isn't a product line segmented by current range; it's a platform that covers the full spectrum. Where an application needs it — an initiation sequence followed by a separate sustain sequence — that's exactly what arbitrary sequencing is for.

Other capabilities relevant to plasma work:

Arbitrary sequencing — combine different pulse timings, polarities, and orders within a single sequence; useful for plasma ignition studies, multi-stage discharge protocols, or synchronised triggering with diagnostics
High continuous frequency — sustained high-repetition-rate operation for continuous plasma processes without generator derating
Precise timing and external trigger — synchronisation with optical diagnostics, mass spectrometry, or other measurement systems is often essential in plasma research

Relevant capabilities

Relevant products

Working on a plasma application?

Tell us what you're working on — we'll figure out the right solution together.

Get in touch