Photoconductive power switches

Photoconductive switches offer potential advantages over conventional pulsed power switches which can be summarized briefly as follows: optical trigger isolation, low inductance, short risetime, short recovery time, scalability to high voltages and/or currents, operation at high repetition rates and light weight. These properties make photoconductive power switches attractive for various applications such as impulse radar or RF weapons. The author presents an introduction into photoconductive switches, including a comparison of three semiconductor materials (Si, GaAs and diamond) used for switching and a description of some of the GaAs photoconductive switching conducted at the Sowerby Research Centre