Investigation of 4 MV coaxial-triplate water self-breaking switch

A high power pulse device, primary test stand (PTS), is under-developed at the Institute of Fluid Physics, CAEP. In order to study the key techniques, the prototype module was built firstly. The prototype module contains Marx generator, intermediate store capacitor, laser triggered gas switch, water pulse forming line, water self-breaking switch, water transmission line and water resistance load. A 4 MV coaxial-triplate multi-channel water dielectric self-breaking switch is designed for water pulse forming line section of the prototype module. The water self-breaking switch contains supporting hardware and three linear arrayed self-breaking gaps. Each gap of the switch is plane to pin electrode configuration. The designable and experimental methods of the water self-breaking switch operating at about 100 ns pulse duration (FWHM) are investigated thoroughly. The jitter, breaking voltage, sum of the channels, electric field analyze, and electric diagnosis are investigative objects of this paper. The working voltage is 3.5 MV and current is 500 kA. The jitter and the inductance of the switch are 3.0 ns and about 40 nH respectively.