A strongly-ionized plasma generator includes a chamber for confining a
feed gas. An anode is positioned inside the chamber. A cathode assembly
is positioned adjacent to the anode inside the chamber. An output of a
pulsed power supply is electrically connected between the anode and the
cathode assembly. The pulsed power supply comprising solid state switches
that are controlled by micropulses generated by drivers. At least one of
a pulse width and a duty cycle of the micropulses is varied so that the
power supply generates a multi-step voltage waveform at the output having
a low-power stage including a peak voltage and a rise time that is
sufficient to generate a plasma from the feed gas and a transient stage
including a peak voltage and a rise time that is sufficient to generate a
more strongly-ionized plasma.