Tesla Coil is a team project built by UCSB IEEE members during Spring 2018.
A Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer circuit designed by inventor Nikola Tesla in 1891. It is used to produce high-voltage, low-current, high frequency alternating-current electricity. Tesla used these circuits to conduct innovative experiments in electrical lighting, phosphorescence, X-ray generation, high frequency alternating current phenomena, electrotherapy, and the transmission of electrical energy without wires. Tesla coil circuits were used commercially in sparkgap radio transmitters for wireless telegraphy until the 1920s, and in medical equipment such as electrotherapy and violet ray devices. Today, their main use is for entertainment and educational displays, although small coils are still used as leak detectors for high vacuum systems.
We determined to build a Dual Resonant Solid State Tesla Coil (DRSSTC) because it’s a really good project to combine different fields together, including the knowledge of basic analog circuit, basic digital circuit, PCB designing and assembly, power electronics, RF circuit etc. In the same time, students can also get the hand-on experience in building mechanical structure, 3D modeling different mechanical parts and using 3D printers, which are important and useful engineering skills.