Fabrication and Testing of Metal Foil Planar Switch

A metal foil spark gap switch is fabricated by using the magnetron sputtering deposition technology and the standard microelectronic technology. The switch consists of two main electrodes and a trigger electrode. Stylus profiler is used to measure the distance between the main electrode and the trigger electrode. The discharge characteristics of the metal foil spark gap switch are discussed. The switch has short delay time and low time jitter. When it is fired by a conventional capacitive discharge unit (CDU), the firing circuit has low inductance and resistance. Because of its low profile structure, it can be easily integrated with the bridge foil used in a conventional exploding foil initiator system (EFIS).