Electric exploding wires triggering of magavolt gas spark gap switch

Pulse power systems have been stimulated intense interest towards high power, compact structure and high reliability. A compact simple self-breakdown megavolt gas spark gap switch, because of its high voltage and high current, is used as a closed switch in the pulse power system of the capacitive energy storage, except that the instability of the breakdown voltage amplitude (RMS) is higher than 7%. In order to reduce the instability, an accurate controllable trigged spark gap switch is necessary. In this paper, electric exploding wires triggering of megavolt gas spark gap switch is presented and developed. It consists of megavolt gas spark gap switch and its trigger, an electric exploding wires trigger source with an electric exploding wires and isolating inductor. First, the principle of the electric exploding wires triggering of the gas spark gap switch is introduced and described. The electric exploding trigger only needs a small energy which is powered by the charging energy of the gas spark gap switch. The exploding product, such as plasma induces the gas spark gap switch breakdown and conduct. Second, this kind of trigged megavolt gas spark gap switch is designed with electrical parameters and geometrical structure on the basis of electric circuit simulation and the finite element simulation. The electric exploding wires trigger is built in the gas spark gap switch. Third, the electric exploding wires triggering of the megavolt gas spark gap switch is investigated experimentally. The switch can operate in 1 MV voltage with the instability of 2% and the jitter of 100 ns, under the condition of 9 μs charging time. Finally, the experimental results of the trigged gas gap switch are discussed and analyzed. The electric exploding wires triggering of the megavolt gas spark gap switch has four merits which are self synchronization, accurate controllable breakdown, high internal insulating level and compact structure. This kind of trigged gas spark gap switch- expands the application field, especially improves the environment adaptability. These efforts set a good foundation for the development of the electric exploding wires triggering of megavolt gas spark gap switch and show a promising application in the pulse power system of the capacitive energy storage for the future.