Corona-plasma triggered pseudospark discharges

This paper reports on a novel pseudospark triggering technique using a corona-plasma electrode to feed initial electrons into one of the pseudospark hollow electrodes. This corona-plasma trigger can be used either at the cathode or anode side of the pseudospark, and it can be connected as well to the high voltage electrode as to the grounded one. With this trigger scheme, a pseudospark switch working at pulse repetition frequencies (PRF) up to 100 Hz has been demonstrated in a continuous mode of operation, while PRF as high as 1 kHz has been achieved in a burst mode. The cumulative number of pseudospark discharges triggered with this technique is already above 5*10/sup 7/, and this corona-plasma triggered pseudospark is still in operation without performance degradation. The main advantage of this pseudospark triggering technique lies in its simultaneous simplicity and reliability allowing high repetition rate, long lifetime, and the complete absence of keep-alive electrode and standby power consumption.<
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