Long, lifetime, triggered, spark-gap switch for repetitive pulsed power applications Citation for published version (APA): Winands, G. J. J., Liu, Z., Pemen, A. J. M., Heesch, van, E. J. M., & Yan, K. (2005). Long, lifetime, triggered, spark-gap switch for repetitive pulsed power applications. Review of Scientific Instruments, 76(8), 085107-1/6. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2008047 DOI: 10.1063/1.2008047 Document status and date: Published: 01/01/2005 Document Version: Publisher’s PDF, also known as Version of Record (includes final page, issue and volume numbers) Please check the document version of this publication: • A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. 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If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement: www.tue.nl/taverne Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at: [email protected] providing details and we will investigate your claim. Download date: 01. Oct. 2021 REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 76, 085107 ͑2005͒ Long lifetime, triggered, spark-gap switch for repetitive pulsed power applications ͒ G. J. J. Winands,a Z. Liu, A. J. M. Pemen, E. J. M. van Heesch, and K. Yan EPS Group, Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands ͑Received 29 April 2005; accepted 1 July 2005; published online 4 August 2005͒ In this article a critical component for pulsed power applications is described: the heavy-duty switch. The design of a coaxial, high repetition rate, large average power, and long lifetime spark-gap switch is discussed. The switch is used with a fail-free LCR trigger circuit. Critical issues for switch design are presented together with experimental results. It is observed that the switch has a good stability, and its lifetime is estimated to be in the order of 1010 shots ͑ϳ106 C͒ at 10 J/pulse, 60 kV and 100 ns pulses. Measurements were performed with 20 and 34 kV average switching voltage ͑100 ns pulses, energy per pulse 0.4 and 0.75 J, respectively͒. For up to 450 pulses/s ͑pps͒, pre-firing can be prevented by increasing the gap pressure ͑up to 2.5 and 7 bars, respectively͒,no gas flush is required. Above 450 pps, up to 820 pps, a forced gas flow of maximal 35 Nm3 /h, is required for stable operation. Measurements on the time delay and jitter of the switch demonstrate that these values are influenced by pressure, flow, and pulse repetition rate. For 34 kV average switching voltage the time delay and time jitter vary between 35 and 250 and 10 and 80 ␮s, respectively. For 20 kV average switching voltage these values are: 30–160 and 4–50 ␮s. During a test run of 2.5 h ͑at 100 Hz, 0.75 J/pulse͒ the feasibility of the switch was proved, and the switching voltage jitter was less than 0.7%. © 2005 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.2008047͔ I. INTRODUCTION magnetic interference ͑EMI͒ radiation. This spark gap is pressurized and continuously flushed with air to increase For pulsed power applications, the heavy-duty switch is pulse repetition rate, to remove spark residue from the gap, usually the most critical component. Several types of closing and to cool down the electrodes. For reliable switching be- switches are available like:1 insulated gate bipolar transistor havior, the switch is used with an LCR trigger circuit. When ͑IGBT͒, transistors, thyristors, thyratrons and spark-gap operated in a correct regime, the LCR circuit always causes switches ͑gas, liquid͒. For spark-gap switches a general clas- the switch to close at the right moment. sification can be made into switches with fixed electrodes and switches with rotating electrodes. The first category can be further divided into self-triggered switches and forced II. SPARK-GAP SWITCH DESIGN triggered switches. The goal of our research was to construct a pulsed power For large scale pulsed power applications using ul- source for pulsed corona plasma applications2–5 with output trashort nanosecond pulses, spark-gap switches are usually characteristics as mentioned in Table I. As discussed below, a used. Also, solid state switches followed by magnetic pulse high-pressure coaxial-type spark-gap switch was considered compression stages are sometimes adopted. The main disad- as the most suitable one to match the tasks. Figure 1 shows vantage of magnetic pulse compression is the low energy schematic overviews of the designed coaxial spark-gap ͑ ͒ efficiency for ultrashort pulses 20–50 ns . For spark-gap switch. The general characteristics of the switch are summa- switches the lifetime was the mayor limiting factor. Other rized in Table II. During the design of the switch, the follow- shortcomings with spark gaps are related to: limited pulse ing remarks were taken into account: repetition rate, strong electrode erosion, insulator degrada- For an un-flushed spark-gap switch, the typical recovery tion, high arc inductance, limited hold-off voltage, and costly time is in the millisecond range.6–8 Pulse repetition rates triggering. typically will remain below 200 pps. The time between In this article, a newly developed coaxial spark-gap pulses is needed to remove the residue of the preceding arc switch having large, fixed, brass, electrode surfaces is de- from the electrode gap and to restore both gas temperature scribed. Because of the design of the electrodes, a long life- and density.9 If the switch is charged before the gap condi- time can be guaranteed. The coaxial structure ensures a low tions have been restored, the switch may pre-fire, i.e., close inductance and containment of possible hazardous electro before the maximum charging voltage is obtained. To obtain higher repetition rates, several possibilities exist like the use ͒ 10,11 a Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; electronic mail: of high-pressure hydrogen, electrostatic sweep of the 8 12 [email protected] electrode gap, corona stabilization, using nonlinear V-p 0034-6748/2005/76͑8͒/085107/6/$22.5076, 085107-1 © 2005 American Institute of Physics Downloaded 15 May 2009 to 131.155.151.77. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://rsi.aip.org/rsi/copyright.jsp 085107-2 Winands et al. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 085107 ͑2005͒ TABLE I. Pulsed power source output characteristics and requirements. spark-gap switch a large volume of electrode material is in- deed allowed to evaporate before the gap distance becomes Switching voltage Ͻ60 kV too large for proper switching. Especially, the trigger- Switching current Ͻ5kA electrode surface is large. Even when a layer of the electrode Pulse repetition rate 1–1000 pps material is evaporated, the switch can still be used, simply by Ͻ Pulse rise time 20 ns decreasing the pressure.4 The second approach is to ensure Pulse width Ͻ100 ns Energy per pulse Ͻ10 J little evaporation per shot. This can be accomplished by a good material choice or by minimizing energy transfer per shot, for example, by using several switches in parallel.4 As a result of data found in literature,12,14,15 brass was chosen as effects,8 and flushing the gap with a forced gas flow.4 The electrode material since the erosion rate is low compared to latter option was chosen for our spark-gap design. Dry air other materials and the material is cheap. The “moving arc” was chosen as flush gas. Besides the ability to increase the principle15 can also ensure reduced evaporation per shot pulse repetition rate, the flow ensures additional cooling of since for moving arcs the hot-spot temperature and thus the the electrodes and removal of the arc residue and eroded evaporation rate decreases. Due to the coaxial construction, electrode material from the switch. This way, surface flash- the moving arc principle also plays an important role in the over on the high-voltage feedthrough insulators, as a result present design. As a result of magnetic pinching, any arc of conducting material deposition, is prevented. Possible initiated between the electrodes will start moving towards damage to the insulator surface due to radiation of the spark is limited as a result of the small opening angle ͑Fig. 1͒ of the center of the switch. The arc is thus not confined to one the radiation originating from the electrode-trigger gap. spot, but moves along the surface. Another important aspect related to the lifetime is the matching between the source and To generate a very short pulse, it is important to keep the 4 inductance of the switch as small as possible.