Study on discharge characteristics of six-gap gas switch with corona assisted triggering

To improve the triggering characteristics of the gas switch used for linear transformer driver, a method of corona assisted triggering based on the pre-ionization in switch gaps is proposed and applied to a six-gap gas switch. The principle is demonstrated by electrostatic field analysis and verified by the experimental study on the discharge characteristics of the gas switch. The results indicate that when the gas pressure is 0.3 MPa, the self-breakdown voltage remains about ±80 kV, and its dispersivity is lower than 3%. The effect of corona assisted triggering on the triggering characteristics increases with the higher permittivity of the inner shield. The positive trigger voltage of the switch with the proposed method can be reduced from 110 to 30 kV at a charging voltage of ±80 kV when the jitter is equal to that of the original switch. There are no pre-fire or late-fire when the switch operates continuously for 2000 shots.