Development of bipolar pulse generator for cell electroporation

Abstract

BackgroundCell electroporation technology under pulsed electric field has been widely used in water treatment, food sterilization, tissue ablation and other applications. Different electroporation applications have different requirements for the pulse waveform.PurposeThis study aims to propose a new pulse generator structure consisting of a special full bridge (FB) module and multiple half bridge (HB) modules to generate bipolar pulse voltages, stepped waves and combination of narrow and wide pulses can also be realized by only changing the switching sequence.MethodsFirst of all, the structure and working principle of novel circuit were elaborated. Then, a main circuit structure composed of 1 full-bridge module and 4 half-bridge modules composed of 12 switches were designed and implemented. Bipolar pulse voltages, stepped waves and combination of narrow and wide pulses were realized by only changing the switching sequence. Finally, verification of the power supply for cell electroporation experiments was carried out in the potato tuber treatment experiment. [ResultsandConclusions] When each level of capacitor is charged at 220 V, bipolar pulse voltage output with ±2 kV and adjustable pulse width of 1~10 μs is realized. Furthermore, the output of a unipolar 9-level step voltage and a combination of wide and narrow pulses are achieved by controlling the switching sequence. Experiment of potato tuber treatment verified the feasibility of this pulse generator.

Keywords

• pulse generator
• bipolar
• step wave
• electroporation