Ultra-high-power repetitive solid state DBD-based switching

Summary form only given. The delayed breakdown device (DBD) presents a closing switch employing the process of fast filling of the semiconductor structure with plasma produced by an ionizing shock wave. The DBD effect was discovered by I.V. Grekhov and A.F. Kardo-Sysoev in 1979. Up to now this regime is used for single structures and, consequently, the working voltage is limited to a few kV, and maximum peak power achieved is about 500 kW. We tried to extend the DBD-based switching process to output voltages equal to hundreds of kV and to output power of several hundreds of MW by connecting many large-square structures in series. The experiments fulfilled show that such approach gives a possibility to increase peak power by three orders of magnitude (up to 500 MW) at FWHM of about 1 ns. In experiments an oil-filled 50-Ohm, 10-cm forming line was used. A solid state SOS-based nanosecond driver SM-3NS type was used for charging the line up to 300-400 kV in about 4 to 5 ns. A delayed breakdown device (DBD) was installed between the line output and a 50-Ohm resistive load. The DBD includes 124 series-connected silicon structures with 4.5-cm/sup 2/ surface area. The DBD is 80 mm long. The experiments showed that under these conditions the DBD withstands the increase in voltage up to 350 kV in about 4 ns, is filled with plasma in about 500 ps, and switches the current to the load. Across 50-Ohm load the output voltage was equal to 158 kV (500 MW) at FWHM of 1.2 ns. In experiments the pulse repetition rate, which was determined by the SM-3NS driver, was as high as 3.5 kHz in burst mode of operation.