Cryogenic semiconductor-switched thyratron inverter switches for superconducting inductive energy storage systems

Author

Petr, R.A. ; Schaefer, R.B. ; Kushner, M.J.

Author_Institution

W.J. Schafer Associates Inc., Chelmsford, MA, USA

fYear

1989

fDate

6-11 Aug 1989

Firstpage

541

Abstract

A semiconductor-switched thyratron (SST) concept that uses a light-activated GaAs cathode to eliminate the grid-cathode structure found in conventional thyratron tubes is described. This collapses the size and weight of the SST by an order of magnitude and gives the device an instant-on cold-cathode emission capability. The GaAs cathode supplies emission current through an electron avalanche effect, so that only a low-intensity, short-duration light signal (0.1 mJ at 100 ns) is needed to trigger the device for high-current (10 kA) operation. Consequently the SST has an extremely high switch gain

Keywords

invertors; semiconductor switches; superconducting magnet energy storage; switchgear; thyratrons; 0.1 mJ; 10 kA; 100 ns; GaAs cathode; cold-cathode emission; electron avalanche effect; emission current; semiconductor-switched thyratron inverter switches; superconducting inductive energy storage; switchgear; Circuits; Cryogenics; Power semiconductor switches; Pulse inverters; Samarium; Superconducting coils; Superconducting magnetic energy storage; Superconducting transmission lines; Temperature; Thyratrons;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1989. IECEC-89., Proceedings of the 24th Intersociety

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IECEC.1989.74517

Filename

74517