Company: Powerbox International AB
Category: Power Product of the Year
Powerbox’s SMM3000A80024C laser power supply is purpose designed to address high peak load applications in the medical laser industry. A good medical laser has less than a millisecond pulse width, meaning that it is incredibly fast-firing, requiring the power supply to be able to deliver high energy levels during the pulse, but also able to restore energy for the next pulse. However, high peak energy and the repetition thereof generates electromagnetic radiation and line disturbance. When considering the design of such a power supply this is a tough call, and to meet such demanding requirements is indeed a great challenge. However, by combining digital power and some special Powerbox innovations, the PRBX AC/DC capacitor charger SMM3000A80024C very effectively meets these requirements.
For complete control, the SMM3000A80024C has a built-in microprocessor constantly monitoring the charging status, reporting end of charge and discharge level, as well as all protection warnings due to abnormal operation such as over-temperature, over-voltage and current.
The power supply delivers 2.25kW repetitive peak power to medical lasers with high efficiency, and importantly it complies with the medical safety standard IEC60601-1 3rd.
More than most, and for obvious reasons, medical applications require line disturbances to kept to an absolute minimum. To achieve this the SMM3000A80024C includes a very high efficiency power factor corrector (PFC), soft-start circuitry, filtering and is housed in a six-sided (completely surrounded), shielded case. To limit audible noise to a minimum, the SMM3000A80024C’s fans are thermo-controlled, regulating their speed to the minimum required for normal, safe operation.
Guaranteeing patient and operator safety, the power supply provides a level of protection primary to secondary main output of 2xMOOP, and 2xMOPP to the auxiliary output. To accommodate different capacitor banks and applications, the output voltage can be adjusted from zero to 800VDC (600VDC nominal) with an output current of 5.5A at nominal. An automatic current controller guarantees that the power envelope is always within safe limits, reducing capacitor aging and overstressing of components, thus contributing to a longer lifetime.
The SMM3000A80024C also delivers an auxiliary output voltage of 24VDC, reducing the need for an additional power supply to power laser controller and interfaces. For additional power, the SMM3000A80024C can be connected in parallel.
Laser equipment is widely used in medical applications and from cosmetic through to general surgery they all require power supplies able to deliver very high peak energy levels to the laser or discharge tubes. CO2 (carbon dioxide) lasers or Erbium YAG are commonly used in medical applications, though the energy released during the pulse related to the specific task can vary by large amounts. In the cosmetic word, there is a newer technology called UltraPulse (a very short pulse duration with high pulse power and very high influence), that is even faster than SuperPulse (medium pulse duration with medium pulse power).
The original design was conceived and manufactured for medical and para-medical applications. However, this advanced power solution, combining digital control, predictive algorithms, supercapacitor energy storage and optimization for repetitive peak load use make it suitable for other laser applications such as those used in industry or telemetry. We also see considerable interest from research laboratories requiring smaller, lighter, portable lasers equipment with the ability to deliver a very high pulse rate. This can only be achieved by a smart power solution with fully optimized charge/discharge operation capabilities such as the SMM3000A80024C.