Investigation of the electrode phenomena in a radial multichannel pseudospark switch

Summary form only given. Multichannel pseudospark switches are promising to serve as long lifetime closing switches in pulsed power applications with currents higher than 100 kA. Such switches, where the several discharge channels are arranged around one common hollow cathode, have the advantage of simultaneously igniting all discharge channels by triggering one hollow cathode plasma. The discharge plasma is driven by magnetic forces generated by the discharge current along the electrode. In a geometry where the discharge plasma can be concentrated on the symmetry axis a high erosion is observed at this point. In this work, a geometry is presented where the gap is closed by a second insulator. In this case a concentration of the discharge plasma can not occur. For this geometry special care has to be devoted to the influence of the magnetic forces on the spatial distribution of the discharge current in order to avoid contact of the discharge plasma with the second insulator.