'Megavolt' inverter innards - a photo on Flickriver

            Her's an X-Ray of the insides of the alleged 1,000,000 volt spark generator that really 'only' gives about 100,000 volts. It is housed in a tube that's backfilled with potting compound so the only way to see what's inside is to wreck it with some quite nasty chemicals - or just take an X-Ray.

On the left, with three terminals, is the inverter transistor. The big squarish thing is the transformer, with the primary (low voltage) winding on the left and the high voltage winding, in several sections, on the right.

The three light patches are the middle of three high voltage capacitors. I don't know what the black blobs are (anothr X-Ray from a different angle suggests they are two-terminal devices and I guess they might possibly be spark gaps). 

Below the right hand blob are two high voltage rectifier diodes. Their structure is interesting: you can clearly see that they're made from a stack of individual rectifier diodes (which are transparent to X-Rays) joined together with slivers of metal (dark). The wires leading out to the right carry the high voltage. 

I think there may be a high value resistor between the two output wires - a sensible precaution, ensuring that the capacitors discharge over a reasonable period of time so that the device doesn't bite you when you pick it up six days after it was last used. 

I haven't had the inclination to work out the output circuit, but it's a reasonable bet it's a simple voltage doubler rectifier. Those blobs intrigue me, though - they are impervious to my ~50keV X-Rays so I can't determine anything about their structure.

Comments are, as usual, welcome.

Taken on: December 22, 2016

Tags:

voltage multiplier

voltage doubler

kilovolt

megavolt

pulse

joule

breakdown

spark

arc

breakdown voltage

100kV

1MV

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Sets appears in: • X-Ray

Groups appears in: • X-ray Pics • Science Nerd Depot more » • ~~~~~~~~ High Voltage ~~~~~~~~~~ « less

Camera: Nikon D3100, f/2.2, 5 sec, 50mm (=75mm), ISO 1600 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D3100
Aperture:	f/2.2
Exposure Time:	5
Focal Length:	50mm (35mm equivalent: 75mm)
ISO:	1600
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Spot
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	High gain up
Contrast:	High
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.1.01
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