Panasonic Microwave Oven Inverter HV Power Supply ++

early all Panasonic microwave ovens now use an Inverter, and are always labelled with “Inverter” on
the front.

The High Voltage Power Supply Unit (HV PSU)

The HV PSU measures 165mm x 105mm x 60mm and weighs 650g.

 At left is the control daughter board. In front of that on the main board are the opto-isolators for the control and status signals brought out to the green connector. Back left is the rectified mains filter choke. The mains rectifier and switching transistors can just be seen on the heatsink behind the transformer. The mains filter capacitor is at right rear. The HV rectifiers and filters (doubler) are right front – white wires are the HV output from the transformer. The green wire is for grounding the HV +ve. The two lugs t right are for connecting HV -ve and heater to the magnetron. The winding thatcan be seen on the transformer is the primary and is made from 3mm finely stranded wire.

Here’s a view of the control end: 

This is the high voltage end:

The circuit for the HV PSU is below 

Notes about the circuit:
1. Apart from the block diagram, there is no information on the Inverter cont(o)rol circuit. The circuit itself is centred on one large, unmarked IC, so no help there.

2. The control and status signals seem to be a digital stream (2-3v suggestsa 5V data stream). They are opto-isolated because the majority of the circuit is at mains potential  (**BEWARE**). The part that isn’t is at 4kV (*** REALLY BEWARE ***)

3. The mains input side is monitored for both current and (under) voltage. No indication of what the control circuit does with this information.

4. The mains filter capacitor (C702) is very small – only 4uF. In a “normal” switching supply, there is usually 220 or 470 uF in this position.

5. Q701 that does all the hard work is a very heavy duty IGBT – a GT60N90 - 900V @ 60 A. Q702 forms some sort of flywheel circuit. This circuit from a Toshiba IGBT application note looks similar:

6. The HV side has a full-wave doubler rectifier and is marked 4kV @  300mA. Unlike the classic microwave oven transformers (where one side of the winding is grounded), this means that the secondary must be well insulated from ground on both sides. A simple reconfiguration of the rectifier (replace the caps with diodes) into a bridge circuit should yield 2kV @ 600mA (depending on the diode ratings)


7. The HV filter capacitors are only 8200 pF each, effectively giving 4100pF in the doubler. Considering that the inverter runs at about 30kHz, the reactance is equivalent to that  of a 5uF capacitor at 50Hz.


8. The positive side of the HV is grounded, so it’s a –4kV supply. Don’t simply swap the ground from the positive to the negative to get a +4kV supply, as the core of the transformer is also connected to this ground trace and will suddenly rise to 4kV above ground with disastrous and potentially fatal results. Instead, reverse the polarity of the rectifier diodes to get +4kV.