With a portion of my circuit, and I trying to accomplish two things:

1) Quickly charge two series capacitors (200mF each) with 10V to later discharge with about 4 amps of current by the 15ms mark.

2) Tap off of this holding-charge to activate a solid state relay (PVN012A) that will connect two 3V coin cell batteries to the AVR microcontroller. Basically, this is acting as a power switch to the microcontroller. So, when the caps are not charged, then the microcontroller isn't wasting battery power.

What component/method should I use to accomplish the above steps without:

a) hindering the charge-up time too much on the caps, and
b) pushing an excessive surge of current/voltage to the solid state relay (inside is basically an LED, max biasing current is 25mA, max reverse voltage is 6VDC, made by International Rectifier)?

I guess my basic question is, should I use a zener diode or a resistor voltage divider to provide the sufficient voltage/current to the solid state relay without messing up my charging time of the capacitors?

As it stands now, I am able to charge up the caps within 2-3 secs and discharge them to around 4 amps within 15ms. So, that part satisfies me. I'm just not sure how to incorporate a power switch to the microcontroller without messing up the caps performance.


Please see attached image.

 

If the charging voltage is 20V, use a 15V zener in series with a 220R resistor.

 

From what I've understood most modern micro controllers don't consume much power at all, some even have sleep modes and the power consumption is in the uA.

 

Yep - 10uA or so to have the uC take a nap, or 20mA to run the SSR's diode to save that 10uA.