Pulsed vacuum flashover of Al2O3/epoxy nanocomposite

Research on vacuum surface flashover mechanisms of insulating material under nanosecond pulses is important for the design and manufacture of high power pulse generators. This paper studies the vacuum surface flashover characteristic of Al
2
O
3
/epoxy nanocomposite filled with different weight proportion of nano-filler. By using a unipolar pulse generator (20 ns rise time and 800ns full width at half maximum), the flashover characteristic of Al
2
O
3
/epoxy nanocomposite is investigated. In addition, the thermally stimulated depolarization current (TSDC) is measured. The experimental results can be explained in terms of the different effects of shallow and deep traps.