AC-chopper application for CW CO2 laser

A microprocessor-based algorithm was developed to control the power supply to a CO2 laser using an AC-chopper method. This system was connected directly to a CO2 laser tube without the need for a dc–dc converter or the storage capacitance of a multilevel circuit. The typical CO2 laser power supply system had a full-bridge series resonant inverter or voltage multiplier. AC-to-AC converter schemes using zero voltage switching (ZVS) can be used efficiently and economically for low and medium power applications.This paper reports the performance characteristics of a symmetrical AC-chopper technology that can maintain the quality of the ac output of a CO2 laser tube, regardless of the amount of switching loss. The laser was operated to an output power, maximum system efficiency total gas mixture of 37.2 W, 92%, and CO2:N2:He=1:9:15, respectively. The laser system, AC-chopper power supply and its operation were examined.