Lifetime of the HCEI spark gap switch for linear transformer drivers

Kim, Alexander; Mazarakis, M.G.; Sinebryukhov, V.A.; Волков, С. Н.; Alexeenko, V. M.; Kondratiev, Sergey; Vasiliev, S. V.

doi:10.1109/ppc.2015.7296875

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The composition of these charging resistors has not been reported previously. This type of resistor, patented by Stoltzfus et al [45], was invented to provide highimpedance with long-term stability and to avoid the problems that arise when using aqueous resistors, such as copper sulfate, in high-power LTDs [16,34,42,46]. Aqueous resistors are known to permeate water through their plastic housings contaminating the cavity and at the same time creating air bubbles inside the resistor that can dramatically change the impedance of the resistor and even create breakdowns inside the resistor.…”

Section: A Charging Circuitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aqueous resistors are known to permeate water through their plastic housings contaminating the cavity and at the same time creating air bubbles inside the resistor that can dramatically change the impedance of the resistor and even create breakdowns inside the resistor. Previous work exists where monolithic solid resistors were used in place of conventional aqueous resistors but it was found that these would occasionally disintegrate or degrade [34,46]. Recent work has also been done by Zhou et al [16] that uses wirecoil "spring" inductors instead of aqueous resistors for charging and triggering.…”

Section: A Charging Circuitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Descriptions of other LTD trigger configurations are given in Refs. [16,28,31,34,36,37,42,[46][47][48][49], all of which, with the exception of Zhou et al, use aqueous resistors in their trigger circuits for switch-to-switch isolation and circuit protection. An example of this circuit including typical component values is shown in Fig.…”

Section: B Trigger Circuitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The use of aqueous resistors in the trigger circuit, as with the charging circuit described in Sec. II A, is problematic due to water permeation and bubble formation [16,34,42,46], which in the extreme leads to complete dehydration of the resistor assemblies. Degradation of aqueous trigger resistors (increasing impedance) will eventually prevent brick switches from firing on command which decreases driver output amplitude and increases pulse rise-time.…”

Section: B Trigger Circuitmentioning

confidence: 99%

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100 GW linear transformer driver cavity: Design, simulations, and performance

Douglass¹,

Hutsel²,

Leckbee³

et al. 2018

Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams

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Herein we present details of the design, simulation, and performance of a 100-GW linear transformer driver (LTD) cavity at Sandia National Laboratories. The cavity consists of 20 "bricks." Each brick is comprised of two 80 nF, 100 kV capacitors connected electrically in series with a custom, 200 kV, threeelectrode, field-distortion gas switch. The brick capacitors are bipolar charged to AE100 kV for a total switch voltage of 200 kV. Typical brick circuit parameters are 40 nF capacitance (two 80 nF capacitors in series) and 160 nH inductance. The switch electrodes are fabricated from a WCu alloy and are operated with breathable air. Over the course of 6,556 shots the cavity generated a peak electrical current and power of 1.03 MA (AE1.8%) and 106 GW (AE3.1%). Experimental results are consistent (to within uncertainties) with circuit simulations for normal operation, and expected failure modes including prefire and latefire events. New features of this development that are reported here in detail include: (1) 100 ns, 1 MA, 100-GW output from a 2.2 m diameter LTD into a 0.1 Ω load, (2) high-impedance solid charging resistors that are optimized for this application, and (3) evaluation of maintenance-free trigger circuits using capacitive coupling and inductive isolation.

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Section: A Charging Circuitmentioning

confidence: 99%