Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T17:37:46.268Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gas discharge in a gas peaking switch

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2005

XINXIN WANG ,
YUAN HU  and
XINHAI SONG
XINXIN WANG
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
YUAN HU
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
XINHAI SONG
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The gas discharge in a gas peaking switch was experimentally studied and numerically simulated. For simulation, the discharge was divided into two phases, gas breakdown and voltage collapse. The criterion for an electron avalanche to transit to streamer was considered as the criterion of gas breakdown. The spark channel theory developed by Rompe-Weizel was used to calculate the spark resistance. It was found that the prepulse considerably lowers the voltage pulse applied to the gap. Even for a given input pulse, the voltage pulse applied to a peaking gap is different for different gap distance due to existence of a different prepulse. In this case, the breakdown voltage of a gas peaking gap depends on gas pressure and gap distance, individually. For nitrogen pressure varying from 3 MPa to 10 MPa and gap distance from 0.6 mm to 1.2 mm, the peak electric field higher than 2 MV/cm was achieved when breakdown. The output 10% to 90% rise time, tr, varies from 145 ps to 192 ps. As gas pressure increases, tr decreases, which can be explained by the fact that the breakdown field increases with the increase of gas pressure. It was found in experiment that the jitter in tr could be attributed to the jitter in breakdown field. Instead of getting longer, the averaged experimental tr gets shorter as gap distance increases from 0.6 mm to 1.2 mm, which differs from the results of calculation and indicates there may exist something, other than electric field, that is also related to tr. The reason for this difference may lies in the inverse coefficient of spark resistance varying with gap distance. On the whole, the results from the calculations agree with the experimental ones.

Keywords

Electron avalancheGas breakdownPeaking switchSpark resistanceStreamer
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , October 2005 , pp. 553 - 558
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Agee, F.J., Baum, C.E., Prather, W.D., Lehr, J.M., O'loughlin, J.P., Burger, J.W., Schoenberg, S.H., Scholfield D.W., Torres, R.J., Hull, J.P., &Gaudet, J.A. (1998). Ultra-wideband transmitter research. IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 26, 860–873.Google Scholar
Andreev, Y.A., Gubanov, V.P., Efremov, A.M., Koshelev, V.I., Korovin, S.D., Kovalchuk, B.M., Kremnev, V.V., Plisko, V.V., Stepchenko, A.S. & Sukhushin, K.N. (2003). High-power ultra wideband radiation source. Laser Part. Beams 21, 211–217.Google Scholar
Avilov, E.A. & Belkin, N.V. (1975). Electrical strength of nitrogen and hydrogen at high pressures. Sov. Phys. Tech. Phys. 19, 1631–1632.Google Scholar
Bates, D.R. (1962). Atomic and Molecular Processes. New York: Academic Press.
Engel, T.G., Donaldson, A.L. & Kristiansen, M. (1989). The pulsed discharge arc resistance and its functional behavior. IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 17, 323–329.Google Scholar
Frost, C.A., Martin, T.H., Patterson, P.E., Rinehart, L.F., Rohwein, G.J., Roose, L.D. & Aurand, J.E. (1993). Ultrafast gas switching experiments. Proc. 9th IEEE Intern. Pulsed Power Conf. 491–494
Korovin, S.D., Kurkan, I.K., Loginov, S.V., Pegel, I.V., Polevin, S.D., Volkov, S.N. & Zherlitsyn, A.A. (2003). Decimeter-band frequency-tunable sources of high-power microwave pulses. Laser Part. Beams 21, 175–185.Google Scholar
Kuffel, E. & Zaengl, W. (1984). High-Voltage Engineering: Fundamentals, p. 383. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Mesyats, G.A. & Korshunov, G.S. (1968). Formation of nanosecond sparks in static breakdown of a gap. Sov. Phys. Techn. Phys. 13, 483–487.Google Scholar
Mesyats, G.A. (2003). 25th anniversary of the Institute of High Current Electronics of the Russian Academy of Aciences, guest editors forward to the special issue. Laser Part. Beams 21, 121.Google Scholar
Mesyats, G.A., Korovin, S.D., Gunin, A.V., Gubanov, V.P., Stepchenko, A.S., Grishin, D.M., Landl, V.F. & Alekseenko, P.I. (2003). Repetitively pulsed high-current accelerators with transformer charging of forming lines. Laser Part. Beams 21, 197–209.Google Scholar
Prather, W.D., Baum, C.E., Lehr, J.M., O'Loughlin, J.P., Tyo, S., Schoenberg, Torres, R.J., Tran, T.C., Scholfield, D.W., Gaudet, J., &Burger, J.W. (2000). Ultra-wideband Source and Antenna Research. IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 28, 1624–1630.Google Scholar
Raether, H. (1964). Electron Avalanches And Breakdown In Gases. London: Butterworths.
Rompe, V.R. & Weizel, W. (1944). Ueber das Toeplersche Funkengesetz. Z. Phys. 122, 636–637.Google Scholar
Schaefer, G., Kristiansen, M. & Guenther, A. (1990). Gas Discharge Closing Switches. New York: Plenum Press.
Shao, G.R. (1982). Grow of Spark Current. In Generation of High Power Nanosecond Pulse, pp. 9–14. Beijing: Atomic Energy Press.