High-Speed Switch-On of a Semiconductor Gas Discharge Image Converter Using Optimal Control Methods

Experiments evidence that optical commutation of current in semiconductor gas discharge devices from a low to a high value may be accompanied by an oscillatory mode of such a transient and by a long effective time for the transition. For a simple two-component model of transport processes in these nonlinear systems, which encounter the main observed features in dynamics, the problem of minimizing the time of switching on the high current state is considered. This problem can be formulated as an optimal control problem with control function provided by a proper temporal variation of the feeding voltage. It is shown that the optimal control can substantially shorten the effective transient time of the process and totally suppress the occurrence of an overshooting in a transient. Optimal control strategies for constraints on control and state variables and for different parameters are presented.