Design considerations in corona stabilised high repetition rate switches

A number of plasma closing switches have been designed to operate at pulse repetition frequencies (PRFs) into the kHz regime. These switches utilise the phenomenon of corona stabilisation to achieve both a high PRF and a long lifetime. Corona stabilisation is a well documented phenomenon which normally takes place in the presence of highly divergent fields. If the degree of field divergence is correctly chosen, it is possible to achieve PRFs up to several kHz. The paper reports on the electrostatic field design of corona stabilised switches, the mechanical assembly and discusses some preliminary results. The design parameters of interest include the profile of the electrodes and the gap spacing.