Original poster: "Steve Ward" <steve.ward@xxxxxxxxx> Hi Brett,
It certainly won't be a matter of just plugging in a standary SCR with a 555 oscillator on the gate. I think one of the 1000v 600a IGBT bricks would be sufficient, probably overkill for that duty. Plus, the driver circuitry wouldn't be any more sophisticated than the usual staccato.
Such an IGBT is completely wrong for this use. It only needs to run a few amps, but possibly very high voltages. The proper way of controlling this would be control of the grid. Let me give it some more thought later... Steve