Gallium arsenide photoconductive switch in high-voltage analogue application

The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate the unique features of jitter-free response and bilateral conduction of photoconductive switches made from gallium arsenide as high-voltage devices optically modulated by high-power illuminators in HV analogue applications. The experimental results show that analogue waveforms, sinusoid and triangle, can be generated with peak-to-peak voltages up to 15 kV in a frequency range from 0.01 Hz to 1250 Hz. The theoretical model suggests that when the maximum modulating frequency of an irradiance is smaller than 1/2/spl pi//spl tau/ (/spl tau/: the effective free carrier recombination time) the peak amplitude of the modulated dynamic conductance of the switch will be constant within the modulating frequency range, which is in good agreement with the experimental result.<>