A novel plasma-jet triggered gas switch

A novel plasma-jet triggered gas switch (PJTGS) triggered by plasma jet is proposed to improve the working behaviour of gas switches, such as the jitter and pre-fire probability under low working ratio. The PJTGS has the configuration of a triple-electrode electric field distortion switch, but a micro-incentive chamber is embedded in the trigger electrode to form plasma jet. The influences of trigger voltage and pressure on characteristics of the PJTGS are studied. The differences of trigger performance of the PJTGS at the field distortion and plasma-jet triggering are investigated. In addition, the effects of trigger voltage are also documented. The results show that the height of plasma jet is influenced by gas pressure and trigger voltage. The jitter of the overvoltage gap can be reduced by the plasma-jet triggering. Increasing trigger voltage not only reduces switch jitter, but also broadens the range of working coefficient. When the working ratio is 27.4% and trigger voltage is 80 kV, the PJTGS can still be triggered with the delay time of 97 ns and jitter of 3.5 ns.