Feng Shuping

A Multiplex Multi-Stage Surface Flashover Switch

A new type of surface flashover switch, suitable for multiplex pulse generation, is studied. The switch is composed of several parallel rail gaps (PRGs). Each multistage PRG is composed of several serial subgroup gaps (SSG) formed by intermediate electrodes. The trigger electrode of the switch is a common electrode isolated from the main discharge circuit and located parallel to the central line of PRGs. The multistage scheme of PRG is helpful to multi-channel discharge. The switch has some advantages, such as a low jitter, low conduct inductance and short switching time. These advantages and the multiplex scheme make the switch suitable for short frontal rising time pulse formation and accurate synchronization for a multi-module parallel operation device. In a primary test, the jitter of the switch is about 3.3 ns. It has been applied in a linear transformer device successfully.