Development of a hermetically sealed, high energy trigatron switch for high repetition rate applications

Triggered gas switches increase the reliability of pulsed power systems. In particular, the performance of high power, repetitively rated impulse generators is greatly enhanced by including a triggered switch. In order to simplify the pulsed power subsystem for field testing, the US Air Force has developed a reliable, fully sealed, trigatron switch. A low inductance, 70 J capacitor bank charged to 50 kVDC is discharged through the hydrogen insulated trigatron at a pulse repetition rate of 600 Hz. The switch is designed to be used for up to one year without replacing the hydrogen gas. The hermetically sealed switch is intended as the primary switch for a resonant transformer. In order to test the limits of the technology, a high energy, low inductance primary capacitor bank was constructed, and switched with the trigatron. The switch construction, the trigger circuit and the hermetic seal are fully described.