Jitter and recovery rate of a triggered spark gap with high pressure gas mixtures

Recent research efforts at Texas Tech University on impulse antenna phased array has necessitated the need to develop a reliable high voltage, high repetition rate switch that will operate with ultra low jitter. An ideal jitter of a small fraction of the rise-time is required to accurately synchronize the array to steer and preserve the rise-time of the radiated pulse. In, we showed the initial test system with sub-ns results for operations in different gases and gas mixtures. This paper presents the impact gases and gas mixtures have on switch performance which includes recovery rate and in particular jitter. A 50 ¿, 1 nF pulse forming line is charged to 50 kV and provides the low inductance voltage source to test the different gases. Triggering is provided by a solid state opening switch voltage source that supplies ~150 kV, 10 ns rise-time pulses at a rep rate up to 100 Hz in burst mode. A hermetically sealed spark gap with a Kel-F lining is used to house the switch and high pressure gas. This paper discusses in detail 50 kV, 100 Hz switch operations with different gases, in particular, mixtures of Kr⁸⁵. Switch jitter as a function of operation time and gas temperature is also evaluated.