Recent measurements of the ferratron; a high-voltage, fast risetime gas switch with a ferroelectric trigger

Summary form only given, as follows. We provide an update on the status of ferratron development. The ferratron is a high-voltage, fast risetime, gas switch with low-jitter and high repetition rate. It is triggered by a change of polarity in a ferroelectric trigger, which generates charged particles and ultra-violet radiation. This device may be suitable for phased arrays due to its low jitter. We have designed and built a test chamber for measuring the output of the ferratron. The test chamber is designed to launch a fast-risetime wave into an electrically large coaxial structure. The transition from gas to oil is accomplished with a polyethylene lens with one surface being a hyperbola of revolution, or hyperboloid. The goal of the transition is to preserve the risetime of the wave as it transitions from gas to oil coax. Since the output coax is electrically large, optical methods are required to maintain a planar phase front in the coaxial output. We have included in our test chamber a method of connecting the gap to a feed cable, in order to drive the gap with a known source for calibration. We provide calibration data that allows a deconvolution of the test fixture impulse response from the data measured with a D-dot probe. We demonstrate that the risetime of the test chamber in time domain transmission (TDT) mode is around 39 ps, which is sufficiently fast to measure the anticipated 100 ps risetime of the pulses to be generated by the ferratron. We will also provide measurements of the switch ill both ferratron mode and trigatron mode. The two modes will be compared in an attempt to demonstrate the expected higher performance (lower jitter) in ferratron mode.