Pulsed power switching technology

There are numerous types of modulators designed for various loads. The modulator design is usually based on capacitive, inductive or rotating machinery as the energy storage media. As a result, each application dictates a unique set of switching characteristics. There are several classes of switches for these applications e.g. Vacuum, Gas filled, Mechanical and Semiconductor. The paper focuses on the various switch technologies- mainly closing switches, their suitability for specific applications and their dominating parameters like Peak Voltage, Peak Current, di/dt, Charge Transfer, Turn-on and Turn-off timings, Losses and the Action etc. In addition the paper enumerates the switch requirements for emerging Military and Industrial applications. During the last decade there has been a significant progress in switching technology especially in the wide-band semiconductors. The paper discusses the state-of-the-art of emerging switch technologies.