Title :
Recovery properties of vacuum spark gaps
Author :
Sampayan, Stephen E. ; Gurbaxani, Shyam H. ; Buttram, Malcolm T.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., New Mexico Univ., Albuquerque, NM, USA
fDate :
12/1/1989 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
The authors investigated the recovery properties of a 90-kV, 15-kA multiple site, triggered vacuum spark gap. Triggering was accomplished with a multisite surface flashover plasma source with approximately 60 sites distributed over a 10 cm2 area. Gap dimensions were 1-cm spacing by 7.5-cm diameter. Recovery measurements were performed utilizing an inductively recharged double pulse circuit. Under a sinusoidal recharge, the time to a 40-kV recovery occurred in 330 μs for an average current fall rate approaching 1010 A/s. These vacuum spark gap switches may provide an alternative method of high-average-power switching
Keywords :
plasma switches; spark gaps; 1 cm; 15 kA; 330 mus; 40 kV; 7.5 cm; 90 kV; high-average-power switching; inductively recharged double pulse circuit; multisite surface flashover plasma source; recovery properties; sinusoidal recharge; triggering; vacuum spark gap switches; vacuum spark gaps; Flashover; Fuses; Laboratories; Magnetic switching; Plasma sources; Pulse compression methods; Pulse power systems; Spark gaps; Switches; Vacuum technology;
Journal_Title :
Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on
