Electromagnetic Design of Ultrafast Electromechanical Switches

To open electromechanical switches within the range of tens of microseconds, we exploit repulsive electromagnetic forces between current-carrying conductor loops. For this we study the power conversion efficiency from electromagnetic to kinetic form. These studies suggest connecting moving coils in series rather than employing inductive coupling. These techniques are put into practice in two prototype switches: the first one is based on induction and the other on series connected coils. Measurements with a high-speed camera verify that both switches achieve accelerations in the magnitude of 140000 g and breaking distances of 1 mm within 50 μs. The switch with series connected coils obtains 44% greater force than the one based on induction.