Overview on the power supply systems for plasma instabilities control

The paper presents an overview on the power supply (PS) systems for plasma instabilities control in fusion experiments, based on active control coils. First, the MHD instabilities and the approach to their control in Tokamaks and Reversed Field Pinches (RFPs) are described. Then, the features of MHD modes controls presently used in fusion experiments are reviewed. For the control systems based on active coils fed by fast power supplies, the typical requirements in terms of power, dynamics, accuracy and delay are summarized and discussed. Then, a survey on the technology available to design these types of PSs is given, together with the most suitable circuit topologies and guidelines for the design, on the basis of solutions adopted in existing experiments.