Electrical Characterization of Edge-Triggered GaAs PCSSs Incorporating Field-Homogenization and Thermal Management Techniques

In this letter, an edge-triggered method combining electric field homogenization and thermal management techniques is proposed to address the issues of large leakage current, poor heat dissipation, and unstable delay time jitter in avalanching gallium arsenide photoconductive semiconductor switch (GaAs PCSS) under long-time operation. Compared with the conventional planar-triggered GaAs PCSS (C-GaAs PCSS), the leakage current of the edge-triggered GaAs PCSS combined with field homogenization and heat dissipation technology (FHS-GaAs PCSS) is reduced by a factor of one, and the delay time jitter is reduced to about 1/3 of the original one. The improved performance of the FHS-GaAs PCSS is attributed to the changeing in the initial carrier positions within the switch, as well as alterations in electric field strength and current density across spatiotemporal dimensions. These changes further modify the switch's conductive pathways.