Flashboards as a plasma source for plasma opening switch applications

摘要

A plasma opening switch (POS) requires the use of a source to inject plasma, usually into the vacuum section of a transmission line of a pulsed power generator. The injection point is typically just upstream of the generator load. A flashboard, which consists of a network of flashover gaps built into a stripline geometry, is capable of providing the drifting plasma source used in the POS. This paper details a series of measurements aimed at optimizing this source plasma in order to obtain improved performance of the combination POShyphen;load system.