Development of a hermetically sealed, high-energy trigatron switch for high repetition rate applications

Abstract

Triggered gas switches increase the reliability and repeatability of pulsed power systems. In particular, the performance of high-power, repetitively rated impulse generators is greatly enhanced by including a triggered switch. Impulse generators generally consist of cascaded energy storage elements, and the pulse-to-pulse voltage variations depend, to the first order, on the consistency of the voltage in the first energy storage stage. Thus, a repetitively operated trigatron has been developed to discharge a low-inductance, 70-J primary capacitor bank with very repeatable voltage at a pulse repetition frequency of 600 Hz. In order to simplify the pulsed power for mobile field-testing, it is desirable to seal the spark gaps to eliminate the need for a gas reservoir. Although high-pressure spark gaps have been sealed previously, long-term containment has not been pursued. To operate at high-pulse repetition frequencies, hydrogen, which is notoriously hard to seal at high pressures, must be used for its superior recovery properties. The hermetic seal was achieved by the careful selection of materials and fabrication techniques and designed for at least one year of use without refreshing.