A high power vacuum rotary arc gap closing switch for pulsed power applications

Various types of closing switches such as TVSs, thyristors, spark gap switches and thyratrons are commercially available. The closing switch is an essential part in capacitor-based pulsed power generation. The key issues to be considered in selecting the switches are: hold-off voltage, peak current, average current, coulombs per shot, voltage drop, delay time, recovery time, repetition rate, jitter, life time, reliability, maintainability, weight, volume, cost and triggering system. Taking into account these issues, a vacuum rotary arc-gap (VRAG) closing switch has been chosen to be developed for the ETC (Electric thermal and chemical) gun power conditioning system. Its specifications of voltage, current and coulomb per shot are 22 kV, 100 kA and 100 Coulomb respectively. In this paper, design, operation and characteristics of a vacuum rotary arc gap switch with the ratings of 22 kV, 100 kA are contained along with experimental results.