Public Funding for Power Gems Limited

Power Gems are established developers and suppliers of high power lamp ballasts used in Entertainment and Event Lighting. Their global reputation for delivering high quality, innovative solutions extends to end customers including the major film and TV studios in Hollywood. Following the successful conclusion of a proof of concept project Power Gems now intend to deliver a development of prototype project. This will produce a market prototype demonstrating a radical new approach to the design of the switch mode power supplies used in driving very high output DC discharge lamps (> 1kW). Power Gems has invented a novel design concept which should result in a saving of at least 40% in both weight and volume over conventional solutions and is also expected to provide up to a 30% increase in energy efficiency. The design is very demanding of high power switch devices and it is only the recent release of components based on Silicon Carbide technology that has enabled the company to consider a practical implementation of the concept. Whilst the design makes particular demands of the MOSFET devices it enables magnetic components to be used that are a fraction of the size and cost of those currently required. Since common applications for high power lighting are either high on gantries or in location filming the resulting quantum leap in portability will be of significant commercial advantage. Powering DC discharge lamps is a very specialist area. Any supply must be capable of typically providing, and controlling, a 160 Amp drive current coupled with a 40,000 Volt “ignition” pulse to strike the discharge. Unfortunately, as well as offering unique characteristics, Silicon Carbide also has some serious design drawbacks and this represents a technically very challenging project. The eventual deliverable will be a modular prototype design, bridging 3 distinct markets, that establishes significant reductions in size, weight and cost over current market products.

This research project aims to demonstrate a proof of concept of a radical new approach to the design of power supplies used in driving very high output DC discharge lamps (> 1kW). DC lamps have a very short arc length compared to their AC equivalents and therefore behave more as an ideal point source of light. This makes them very suited to projection systems where tight focussing of the light beam is required. As a result they are in high demand for the latest digital cinema projection equipment. Power Gems has devised a novel design which, initial calculations show, should result in a saving of at least 40% in both weight and volume over conventional solutions and also provides a theoretical 30% increase in energy efficiency. The design is very demanding of high power switch devices and it is only the recent release of components based on Silicon Carbide technology that has enabled the company to consider a practical implementation. Whilst the design makes particular demands of the MOSFET devices it would require magnetic components that are a fraction of the size and cost of current solutions. Since common applications for high power lighting are either high on gantries or in location filming the resulting quantum leap in portability will be a significant commercial advantage. Powering DC discharge lamps is a very specialist area. Any supply must be capable of typically providing and controlling, a 160 Amp drive current coupled with a 40,000 Volt “ignition” pulse to strike the discharge. Unfortunately, as well as offering unique characteristics, Silicon Carbide also has some serious design drawbacks and this represents a technically very challenging project. The deliverable from this project will be a 4kW laboratory based device that will demonstrate the desired savings in magnetic component and heat sink size and weight, together with an extensive EMC analysis to confirm the potential for development into a viable commercial product.