Breakdown Fields and Risetimes of Select Gases Under Conditions of Fast Charging ((caret)20 ns and Less) and High Pressures (20-100 Atmospheres)

摘要

An interest in wideband impulse-radiating systems has brought about the need to develop high-voltage timed-array antennas that can focus and steer an electromagnetic pulse in the far field. To produce desirable radiated signal levels in the far field these arrays will need to be driven by high-voltage high-power sources that at least in the short term will have to rely on pulsers based on gas spark gap technology. To produce the high frequencies an array must be driven by sources with risetimes in the range of lOO-200 ps or even faster Since multiple pulsers will have to be used to drive a large array a suitable pulser design will most importantly have to have ultra-low triggering jitter (the standard deviation in the switch closure delay after trigger arrival). The jitter will have to be some relatively small fraction of this risetime to accurately steer and preserve the risetime.