Research of 100 kA microsecond-conduction-time plasma opening switch

The experiments of microsecond conduction time plasma opening switch (POS) which has been operated at 100 kA current level are reported in this paper. As a result, the rise time of load current is between 54 to 76 ns. The maximal POS voltage of 1.38 MV is obtained with the 200 nH inductive load, and a factor of voltage multiplication up to 4.9 is achieved. In addition, a 2D snowplow model of POS conduction phase has been developed. The sequence of snowplow fronts in POS conduction phase is obtained from the simulation. The primary results show that the model has well predictability.