Study of semiconductor switches for Electromagnetic Launcher

High current high voltage switches are extensively used for power applications. Electromagnetic launcher (Railgun) requires switching of large current in the proper sequence to ensure acceleration of projectiles to attain required velocities. These power applications require current of the order of Mega Ampere for 5-10 ms and hence need special purpose switches. The Spark Gap or Ignitron are conventionally used for power application as main switch and crowbar switch. These switches operate at high voltage and high current capacity but have low reliability, robustness and lifespan. In this work an attempt is made to explore the possibility of replacing the conventional switches with semiconductor devices like Thyristor and Diode which are having advantages over Spark Gap and Ignitron. In this paper detail review has been carried out to study the use of semiconductor devices in pulsed power applications.