Self-breakdown charicteristic of multigap switch for fast linear transformer driver

The effects of surface roughness, field enhancement factor, current and gas pressure on self-breakdown voltage of a stackable multigap switch used for fast linear transformer driver are investigated. The mean self-breakdown voltage has no remarkable change and the dispersancy of self-breakdown voltage is under 1.5% when the surface roughness is 0.4 μm to 0.8 μm. The electrode erosion is symmetrical and the dispersancy of self-breakdown voltage is under 2.0% when the field enhancement factor is 1.20 and 1.30. The dispersancy of self-breakdown voltage increase almost two times as the current is changed from 1.1 kA to 30.0 kA. The dispersancy of selfbreakdown voltage increases from 1.5% to 3.6% when the gas pressure is changed from 0.04 MPa to 0.30 MPa. Some methods of reducing the disp