[TCML] SSTC State of the Art?

[Greg Morris]

Hi Folks,

I'm designing and building a music-modulated SSTC for my final project in my
EE degree. I've been a member of the Tesla List for about six years, but
I've only ever built rudimentary spark gap TCs, and only as recently as
2006, so I was wondering if anyone would care to discuss the current state
of the art in SSTC design?

One of the big questions I have is what are people using for FETs these
days? I'm looking at something in the 500W - 1kW range. Any tips to avoid
blowing the FETs up? Any general tips on music-modulated coils? Tricks for
getting the best sound quality out? I'm thinking I'll probably vary the
pulse-widths to achieve amplitude modulation of the spark output according
to the musical input. I plan to drive the TC with a basic PIC or possibly
AVR MCU (in a faraday cage, of course). Anyone want to share links to
especially good sites on musical TCs?

Thanks!
Greg

-- 
Greg Weyrich Morris
VP External - Engineering Undergraduate Society
B.Sc. Electrical Engineering (Final Year)
University of New Brunswick
G.B.Morris at unb.ca
www.unb.ca/robotics