A miniature GW-power plasma opening switch

In addition to its many defence applications, pulsed power is becoming widely used in civilian areas such as pulsed electric field (PEF) industrial food processing, pollution control, biology and medicine, when a reliable, simple and repetitive table-top high-power source is often required. As part of an ongoing research programme into the technology involved, Loughborough University has developed a miniaturised plasma opening switch, that when fed from a suitable generator is capable of delivering GW-level power to a dynamic load. The paper presents details of the development and construction of the miniaturised (i.e. cm size) switch, together with important results obtained during a 2-year experimental programme, when the switch was mounted at the output of a Tesla-charged pulse forming line and power well in excess of 10 GW was delivered to an x-ray load.