ENHANCED SPARK GAP SWITCH RECOVERY USING NONLINEAR V P CURVES/

A method of improving the voltage recovery time of high pressure gas s witches is described and demonstrated, By changing the electrode geome try of a normally uniform field switch, it is possible to suitably alt er the breakdown voltage/pressure (Vip) characteristic The desired V/p characteristic for improved voltage recovery is one which exhibits tw o different rates of rise of breakdown voltage with pressure, such tha t at high enough pressures, the breakdown voltage becomes almost indep endent of pressure. Full voltage recovery may then be achieved during the fast dV/dp section of the curve while only partial pressure recove ry is achieved, This effect is demonstrated in a switch filled with SF 6. An improvement in the voltage recovery time of greater than 10 ms t o similar to 1 ms was observed when the operating pressure was increas ed from 3-6 bar.