Explosively formed fuses for high voltage systems

Summary form only given. At Los Alamos, we had previously applied Explosively Formed Fuse (EFF) techniques to large systems, where the EFF has interrupted currents from 19 to 25 MA. More recently we have been investigating the use of the EFF technique to apply high voltages to high impedance loads in compact systems, and have used 43-cm EFF systems to interrupt currents of /spl sim/3 MA and produce voltages up to 300 kV. We now report our progress towards producing up to 500 kV, 1-/spl mu/s duration pulses using 76-cm EFF systems. In compact explosive systems, the interactions of shock and detonation waves with conductors and insulators offers some significant challenges, especially when the local electric fields approach the breakdown strengths of the insulators. The results of computer calculations and experiments of switch performance will be presented.