(Source: Sunisa/stock.adobe.com; generated with AI)
Based on an interview with Shravan Govindaraj
For a long time, pulsed field ablation (PFA) was restricted to experimental systems and limited deployments. Now, as technology has matured and clinical confidence has grown, large original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are beginning to integrate PFA into mainstream ablation platforms. However, as adoption of the PFA technique grows, it introduces new challenges for reliably powering high-voltage medical systems.
XP Power, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of medical and industrial power supplies, works closely with medical OEMs to develop next-generation ablation platforms. As PFA systems scale toward production volumes and tighter regulatory scrutiny, XP Power’s high-voltage DC-DC portfolio has become part of that design conversation.
To gain a deeper understanding of the road ahead for PFA power designs, we spoke with Shravan Govindaraj, Product Marketing Manager at XP Power, and learned how medical power architectures balance IEC 60601 compliance, isolation, and high-voltage control in the face of growing demand for PFA technology. As Govindaraj puts it, “PFA went from a novel therapy a couple of years ago to mainstream today. All the big medical industry players are already in it or are entering the market through acquisitions or their own developments.”
Shravan Govindaraj is a product marketing professional with over eight years of experience in technical sales and product marketing across multiple industries, including power supplies, electric motors, and HVAC. Shravan joined XP Power in 2022 to develop and implement go-to-market strategies for all XP Power products. Shravan previously worked at Regal Rexnord across technical sales, product marketing, and digital customer experience roles, leading market analysis, sales enablement, and growth strategy initiatives. He also conducted energy assessments as an intern with the U.S. Department of Energy and holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky.
Pulsed field ablation differs fundamentally from earlier ablation techniques that rely on heat. Rather than using radio-frequency (RF) energy to thermally damage tissue, PFA applies short, high-voltage electric pulses that create microscopic disruptions in targeted cells.
“You’re applying a high external electric field at specific cells that you want to kill, and the field creates small holes in them,” Govindaraj says. “If there are enough holes, then the cell loses energy and dies.”
This process, often referred to as irreversible electroporation, enables clinicians to destroy targeted tissue while minimizing damage to surrounding structures. In cardiac procedures, that selectivity matters. Legacy thermal ablation techniques can affect nearby tissue such as the esophagus or vascular structures, increasing procedural risk and recovery time.
Despite PFA’s benefits in precise targeting, its electrical nature introduces new system requirements and challenges. Instead of delivering continuous power, equipment must generate high-frequency, repeatable, and predictable kilovolt pulses.
To achieve repeatable and precise kilovolt pulses, PFA systems deliberately separate how energy enters the system from how it’s ultimately delivered to tissue. Rather than generating high voltage (HV) directly from the AC mains, PFA platforms typically begin with a medically approved AC-DC power supply that converts line power into a low-voltage DC rail. That front-end stage introduces constraints related to patient isolation, leakage current limits, and safety compliance.
From there, energy moves into a high-voltage DC-DC converter. This second stage steps up the low-voltage DC rail to the kilovolt range required for ablation, without any direct electrical connection to the mains. Importantly, the DC-DC converter doesn’t generate the therapy pulse itself. Instead, it provides a regulated, programmable high-voltage reservoir that downstream circuitry can draw from.
Govindaraj sheds light on the advantage of this power flow: “When the HV DC-DC provides precise, monitored voltage and current control, downstream stages can focus on pulse shaping rather than compensating for upstream uncertainty.”
Pulse formation occurs further downstream, where switching networks and energy-storage elements gate the stored high voltage into the patient interface. Those components determine pulse width, rise time, repetition rate, and sequencing. By contrast, the DC-DC stage focuses on precise high-voltage delivery, current limits, and system visibility.
The division of labor in pulse formation explains why DC-DC architectures dominate PFA systems instead of high-voltage AC-DC designs. First, AC-DC supplies capable of generating kilovolt-level outputs tend to be physically large and heavily influenced by regulatory constraints. Second, DC-DC stages offer higher power density, easier programmability, and more precise separation between safety compliance and therapy delivery.
Therefore, DC-DC converters offer medical designers a more modular approach, simplifying development. Engineers can qualify the AC-DC front end for medical safety, validate the high-voltage DC-DC stage for regulation, monitoring, and protection, and independently iterate on pulse-generation hardware and control algorithms.
“High-voltage DC-DC converters are typically treated as system components rather than standalone IEC 60601-1 certified devices. Compliance is achieved at the system level, where the front-end power stage and overall architecture define patient isolation, leakage limits, and fault protection,” says Govindaraj.
By assigning patient isolation and means-of-protection requirements to the AC-DC stage, OEMs also avoid duplicating safety mechanisms inside the HV converter. The HV stage focuses instead on controllability and predictable behavior.
Within this framework, compact HV DC-DC modules have gained traction. For PFA, XP Power offers its HRL30 series of miniature 30W regulated DC-DC converters. With a 76.2mm × 38.1mm × 18.6mm footprint, the series can generate up to 6kV from a 24V input and offers programmable voltage and current, as well as integrated monitoring and protection.
“One of our biggest competitive advantages is size,” says Govindaraj. “Traditional capacitor chargers were shoebox-sized assemblies. The HRL30 is very compact, but it still gives you six kilovolts at thirty watts.”
Density matters because parasitic inductance, loop area, and layout length directly influence transient behavior and repeatability. A smaller, self-contained high-voltage module simplifies routing and reduces the need for additional shielding or spacing that would otherwise complicate system layout. Compact power stages also free up space for imaging, control electronics, and thermal management, which is important as medical equipment density increases.
As PFA matures and gains adoption, power architecture will be tantamount to system performance and, ultimately, patient safety. Fortunately, XP Power’s HRL30 series offers designers a compact, reliable, and high-performance power solution that enables the next generation of PFA applications.
XP Power is a leading provider of power solutions, including AC-DC power supplies, DC-DC converters, high-voltage power supplies, and EMI filters. XP offers total quality, from in-house design in Asia, Europe, and North America to manufacturing facilities around the world.