A novel capillary plasma switch (CPS) for electrothermal launchers

A new type of capillary with closing switch properties is proposed as a realistic alternative to the conventional capillary in electrothermal (ET) launchers. This capillary is designed as a plasma switch with a trigger electrode (TE) in place of an exploding wire. The capillary plasma switch (CPS) has dual functions of plasma generator or ignition for chemical medium, plus as a switch for the charged circuit, which considerably simplifies the power supply system and meets the requirements of a compact system. The conventional closing switches in the power system for ET launchers can be eliminated. In our work up to now, the special emphasis for CPS has been on the design of the TE. Experiments were carried out to investigate the electrical characteristics of CPS. This paper describes details of experimental testing of devices under a wide range of operating conditions and example waveforms are illustrated. The experiments proved that the CPS was suitable for ET launchers and can offer several advantages over the conventional capillary such as repetitive operation and compactness.