Status of KERI's Pulsed Power Research and Development

This paper reviews the research and development results achieved in the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) in a decade. KERI develops pulsed power technology and its applications are mostly based on power electronics. KERI's research and development activity covers components, military systems, and industry applications. High-voltage switching means developed in KERI are a rotary arc gap (RAG) switch (11 kV and 400 kAp), a vacuum RAG (20 kV and 150 kAp), an inverse pinch switch (20 kV and 150 kAp), and 10-kV semiconductor switch stacks made of thyristors and Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs). The IGBT and thyristor stacks consist of 10 or 12 1.2-kV discrete devices and are operated by only one active drive circuit installed in the groundside. Some ferromagnetic opening switch schemes are also researched on trial bases. Some of KERI's research and development works from devices to application systems will be described.