Abstract
Ultrafast plasma closing switches rely onsub-nanosecond electrical breakdown of the insulating gas.Until recently, little information was available on gasbreakdown occurring within this timescale, because of the difficulties in designing an experimental system for such astudy. Recently published papers have reported on the resultsof studies carried out using two devices designed specificallyfor the investigation of fast (sub-nanosecond) electricalbreakdown processes. The devices are essentially modifiedtransmission line plasma closing switches, and in this paper we describe their structure and operation. Because electromagneticwave behaviour plays a significant role in sub-nanosecondswitching, especially reflections from impedance mismatches,the design of the devices is based on transmission lineconcepts, rather than those of lumped parameters. One of theswitches has a conical transmission line topology and isdesigned for the study of fast switch closure at insulating gaspressures less than 0.6 MPa. The second has a hybrid radialtransmission line/conical transmission line topology and isdesigned for the study of fast switch closure at pressures up to10 MPa. The paper also includes details of the D-dot monitorsused to investigate sub-nanosecond processes in the two transmission line plasma devices.
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