Study on firing conditions of multigap gas switch for fast linear transformer driver

As one of the critical elements of fast linear transformer driver (FLTD), gas switch directly influences the output parameters, stability, and reliability of generators based on FLTD technology. In this paper, a multigap gas switch with six gaps in series has been investigated to study the proper firing conditions to get better performance for FLTD. The self-breakdown voltage with different gas pressure has been studied to derive the working ratio of the switch. The triggered breakdown delay and jitter with different charge voltage, gas pressure, and working ratio have been studied. The results indicate that when the switch is triggered by a 100-kV trigger voltage pulse under 180-kV charge voltage and 0.325-MPa pure nitrogen (70% working ratio), the delay time and the jitter are 34 and 1 ns, respectively.