Field emission peaking switch studies

Experiments by Shimomura, et al., investigated intense electromagnetic transient breakdown in low-pressure gasses. This work strongly suggests that vacuum gap switches could have great utility as peaking switches for extremely high voltage pulsers in the subnanosecond regime. This paper describes the results of field emission peaking switch studies conducted at the Air Force Research Laboratory with the H-2 pulser. The pulser is capable of delivering 300 kV to a load with a 250-ps risetime. The effects of electrode material and switch geometry on switching performance are discussed.