Development of P-C switch with adjustable gap

A high voltage and high repetition-rate P-C switch is designed. The switch contains Peaking gap and Chopping gap, which can be adjusted by turning two groups of symmetrical rotary knobs outside the cavity respectively. The switch can sharpen the rise-time and fall-time of the input pulse synchronously, and can transform a nanosecond pulse signal into a sub-nanosecond pulse signal. Experimental researches on the P-C switch are performed on the "SOS" pulse source, and experimental results are analyzed. The results prove that the gap, gap pressure and repetition-rate of the switch all have great effect on the rise-time, fall-time, pulse-width and voltage range of the output pulse and the P-C switch has excellent operating characteristics when it operates at short gap and high gap pressure. It's also reveals that the rise-time of the input pulse is more sharp, the gap-breakdown delay is shorter and the breakdown voltage is higher. The switch can steadily work with 8MPa gap pressure at 100Hz repetition-rate and export pulses with 129.2kV peak voltage, 460ps pulse-width, 400ps rise-time, and 320ps fall-time. © 2008 Institute of Fluid Physics, C.