The performance of a sealed hollow electrode switch in a high repetition rate test circuit

In recent years, a form of high-voltage low-pressure gas switch in which a hollow electrode geometry is used has been investigated by a number of workers. In its simplest form, this type of switch consists of a pair of plane parallel electrodes with an axial hole which provides access to the enclosed hollow electrodes behind. This type of geometry has been found to operate satisfactorily at high power where currents of at least several kA are switched for times of several microseconds or more, but in lower power applications the performance has been found to be hindered by the switch geometry. This paper describes a modified design in which some of the limitations of the basic hollow electrode switch design are avoided. Test results are presented for operation at up to 15 kV, 200 A, 200 ns and repetition rates of up to 2 kHz