Design Of RF Power For RF-excited CO₂ Laser

Today, the RF-excited CO₂ laser holds the important position in the laser processing industry because of its unique advantage. The RF power source is one of the important components of the RF-excited CO₂ laser. It is important to design excellent RF power for the RF-excited CO₂.The design of the low RF power is studied in this paper.Firstly, the development of the RF-excited CO₂ laser and RF power source are introduced in this paper. The principle of the RF-excited laser and the correlated theory of RF discharge are introduced in the paper. It includes the theory of equivalent impedance and RF arcing. The model of the RF discharge is proposed and the RF frequency of the CO₂ laser is discussed in the paper. In meantime, the concepts of match circuit and the parameter of RF power are introduced in the paper.Secondly, two ways of designing RF power is introduced in the paper. The self-excited RF power source is designed in this paper. According to the RF power requirements, The oscillator and the power amplifier use the identical transistor in common in the self-excited RF power source and the one-quarter wavelength microstrip transmission line is used for impedance match, its optimum parameter is calculated. The unself-excited RF power source is designed in this paper. The RF oscillator, the RF power amplifier and the match circuit are designed by means of ADS2008.Through analyzing and simulating results, we draw a conclusion that the unself-excited RF power source is suitable for the RF-excited CO₂ laser whose laser tube and RF power is separated.Finally, the self-excited RF power source is made experiment. Through the contrast experiment, the conclusion is obtained that the self-excited RF power source is suitable for the RF-excited CO₂ laser whose laser tube and RF power is integrated.