A framework for computing safe peak limits for pulsed operation of physical and engineered systems

Pulsed operation is a fundamental strategy across diverse physical and engineered systems, enabling functionality not achievable under steady-state conditions (e.g., stroboscopy, LiDAR scanning, electroporation). Presently, pulsed systems are commonly specified around just one operation point for peak input height, duration, and repetition rate, and there exists no general physical framework for trading off one parameter for another (e.g, increasing peak height by reducing duration). Here, we present a general framework using Taylor expansions to calculate the rectangular pulse width and height limits for safe operation in a wide variety of nonlinear, non-overshooting pulsed systems. We validate this method experimentally by pulsing LEDs, where manufacturer specifications commonly only provide a single pulsed operation specification (e.g., 3 times higher peak current at 10% duty cycle with 0.1 ms pulse width). We demonstrate how to extrapolate these values to a wide range of peak inputs, duty cycles, and pulse widths. The framework provides a quantitative basis for safe pulsed operation in nonlinear devices, including high-power LEDs, power transistors, and electroporators, and can be readily extended to a wide range of emerging applications.