Design and Tests of a 13-kA/6.5-kV Thyristor Switch for a Pulsed Inductive Plasma Source

In this paper, the design, construction, and test procedure of a closing-switch prototype based on thyristors are described. In particular, details are given about the design criteria and the triggering board architecture, which is a high-side-biased self-supplied unit using electrical energy derived from a local snubber network for the gate drive. The structure guarantees a hard firing gate pulse for the required high-dI/dt application. Furthermore, the results of the prototype tests are presented and discussed. The stack assembly has a holding voltage of 6.5 kV and is used for switching a series resonant circuit with a ringing frequency of 12 kHz for a pulsed inductive plasma source. Maximum current amplitudes of 13 kA and pulse energies of more than 600 J were switched during the test procedure.