Corona-triode characteristics: on effects possibly caused by the electronic component

The plate current for negative corona in a corona triode is observed to become positive and saturate at a value I_s when the grid-to-plate distance is less than 15 mm and the grid is biased positively. The saturation current, I_s, is strongly dependent on the point-to-grid distance, which appears to indicate that the current is linked to those high energy hot electrons which survive attachment and are capable of ionizing molecules below the grid. Also investigated are the dependence of the saturation current on a few parameters and the current density distribution over the plate area. The relevance to the effects of corona treatment on the surface charge decay of polymer samples is discussed