Study on a Plasma-Jet Triggered Trigatron Switch in a 1.0 MJ-Flashlamp Driven Power System

摘要

In the Pre-ionization lamp-check module of the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) power system, the trigatron switch was widely used for its compact structure and high reliability. A plasma-jet triggered trigatron switch (PTTS) for the PILC module of a 1.0 MJ-flashlamp driven ICF power system was developed and evaluated in this paper. The performance of the PTTS and the erosion characteristics were measured after about 4000 discharge cycles of the lifetime tests. The results showed that the ablation of the polymers tube between trigger pin and graphite electrode had a significant influence on the performance degradation of the PTTS. The delay time increased from 9 to 20 A mu s and the jitter was less than 1.0 A mu s under operating voltage of 23.5 kV, the erosion of the graphite electrodes was not serious and a stable self-breakdown voltage was obtained, the degradation of the PTTS was mainly attributed to the ablation of the polymers tube, good performance of the PTTS could be obtained when the polymers tube was renewed.