Development of charge-discharge circuitry based on supercapacitor and its application to limiter probe diagnostics in EAST

The EAST limiter probe is installed on the front surface of guard limiter, which consists of two columns and can operate in floating potential mode, ion saturation current mode, and swept single-probe mode simultaneously. When Langmuir probe operates in the ion saturation current mode, it requires a stable biasing voltage. To meet this requirement, a large capacitor is used to provide a biasing voltage for the probe. Comparing with the 9 V dry batteries that are commonly used in magnetic confinement fusion devices, employing a large capacitor offers advantages such as flexible voltage adjustment, easy maintenance, and environmental friendliness. Therefore, we have designed and tested a complete set of supercapacitor charge-discharge control circuitry. In this work, a control software is developed for the supercapacitor charge-discharge control circuitry based on the Python language to enable the remote and automatic controlling of the circuitry operation. As demonstrated in experiments, the capacitor charge-discharge control circuitry can supply stable biasing voltage output for the probe under long-pulse discharge, and it is workable in complex electromagnetic environment of magnetic confinement fusion device. By implementing the supercapacitor charge-discharge control circuitry in EAST limiter probe diagnostics, the three-dimensional distributions of plasma parameters are measured, such as ion saturation current, floating potential, electron temperature, and plasma density. In a lower hybrid wave (LHW) heating experiment, the 2.45 GHz LHW is found to generate larger electron density than the 4.6 GHz LHW, and the largest electron density appears when both the 2.45 GHz and 4.6 GHz LHWs are turned on simultaneously. These experimental results confirm that supercapacitor charge-discharge control circuitry can be operated reliably and stably.