High Current, High Coulomb Ignitrons: Final Report, May 20, 1988--September 30, 1988.

摘要

Texas Tech University is currently conducting research to develop high power ignitrons. The new ignitrons should be able to handle currents up to 1000 kA with a charge transfer of more than 500 C's per shot. Other requirements are a reasonable lifetime of 500--1000 shots and a low forward voltage drop. The project is carried out jointly between manufacturers, (Richardson Electronics/US and EEV/UK), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Texas Tech University (TTU). Two Workshops have been held at TTU and LLNL to coordinate the work and address the research areas. Since the beginning of the ignitron work at TTU, a capacitor bank, a charging power supply, several test stands for critically damped and crowbarred operations, two high speed cameras, a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and electrical diagnostics equipment were set up and tested. High power voltage and current measurements, as well as high speed photography of the discharge plasma, have been performed. The effects of axial magnetic fields on the discharge plasma and the holdoff voltage have also been studied. 3 refs., 12 figs., 2 tabs. (ERA citation 14:011590)