Two-staged pseudospark switch triggered by glow discharge

In order to enhance the working voltage of pseudospark switch, a two-staged pseudospark switch triggered by glow discharge is designed. The design of the switch is comprised of the anode, cathode, grid electrode and glow discharge cavity. The two-staged pseudospark switch is formed by adopting middle grid electrode. The middle grid electrode uses a flat plate, with a thickness of 1.5 mm. The grid holes with a size of 1 mm each are distributed on a ring with a diameter of 5 mm. The glow discharge cavity is devised to work on the left region of Paschen curve, with the characteristics of large discharge current and low trigger voltage. Experiment shows that the RC voltage even assignment is needed for the switch and it can make the anode voltage divide equally in the two gaps. Then the switch can be triggered reliably with the anode voltage from 1 kV to 57 kV. When the anode is charged to 57 kV, the output voltage on the 50 resistor load is 56 kV, and the jitter is about 1.4ns.