Do Gas-Filled Switches Still Have a Future?

The first part of the paper is mainly focused on a comparison of the stat-of-the-art switching concepts with regard to most important parameters like hold-off voltage, peak current, rise time, pulse length, mean and total charge transfer, power loss, lifetime, repetition rate, availability and so on. Based upon the results of the previous part in the next part the pros and cons are summarized with the goal to comment the on-going process of substitution of gas-filled switches by solid-state devices. Finally the physical and technological limits are discussed together with an outlook to future chances with the development of both types of high power switches.