Low-cost, 3 Kv, Triggered, Stripline, Surface-discharge Switch

A low-cost, triggered, stripline, surface-discharge switch has been developed which is capable of rapidly switching several kA of peak current for greater than one thousand operations. It was constructed using copper-Kapton (polyimide) printed circuit technology. Switches with DC holdoffs up to 5 kV have been operated at peak currents up to 8 kA prior to failure. Two optimized switch designs have resulted from this investigation. The first uses a multilayer design while the second uses a planar design. The trigger mechanism of both switch designs was studied using photomultiplier tubes (PMT) and high speed framing cameras.