Plasma-puff triggering of plasma switch

The authors report on the results of several approaches to a uniform trigger, which include multiple-triggering pins, a knife-edged trigger ring, a wire-brush trigger, and a hypocycloidal-pinch (HCP) plasma-puff trigger. It is shown that there is a limited range of operation for a given trigger method when it is used to close the annular gap of the inverse-pinch switch. The degree of azimuthal uniformity of the current density depends strongly on the method of triggering. HCP switch operation was successful up to 20 kV, 1 MA or 2×10¹⁰ VA peak power transfer