Partial discharge and accelerated pulsed aging of insulation between parallel plane-plane stainless steel electrodes and between Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O tapes at room temperature

Partial discharge (PD) and pulsed aging of CTFE thin films between two parallel plane-plane stainless steel electrodes and PTFE lapped tapes between two adjacent high temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes made of Bi₂Sr₂Ca₂Cu₃O_x (BSCCO) were measured at room temperature. In PD experiments, the samples were exposed to a series of alternating current (AC) voltages of equal duration and increasing magnitude until PD was initiated and observed. In pulsed aging experiments, the samples were caused to fail by a series of positive polarity high voltage (HV) pulses with the specified magnitude (above the PDIV), width, and repetition rate. The time-to-breakdown and the total number of pulses at a given aging voltage were measured. The aging data are presented in the form of a log-log plot of applied voltage versus time-to-breakdown to determine the n-values for the lifetime performance of CTFE thin films and PTFE lapped tapes when used in the above configurations.