This was a high frequency jet engine ignition assembly that I designed and built to support some of the jet engine testing that I was doing at the time. The intent of the design was to make a relatively safe ignition device that would produce a very high voltage, low current, ignition arc with a long duty cycle. I used a 555 timer to feed high frequency chopped DC to a high voltage transformer. The project was a good integrated circuit design learning experience. The ignition unit worked well, and I used it on several subsequent engine test projects, but it tended to produce significant EMF that interfered with data acquisition and nearby low voltage signal measurements.
Michael Fuchs Personal Projects 