A Miniaturized Surface Flash Triggered Vacuum Switch with Low Trigger Delay Time and High Working Life

Surface flash triggered vacuum switch (STVS) is widely used in pulse power closure systems due to its excellent working performance. The overall size of STVS is also an important factor affecting its application. This paper demonstrates a high-performance miniaturized STVS with an operating voltage up to 35 kV. Based on Comsol electric field simulation optimize the internal shield and main electrode structure of STVS to make the package shell diameter less than 45mm. A special trigger electrode structure is designed and tungsten metal is selected as the electrode material to optimize the trigger threshold and working life of the miniaturized STVS. We fabricated a miniaturized STVS prototype, built a test circuit, and measured the miniaturized STVS working performance. The experimental results show that the designed miniaturized STVS has a minimum trigger delay time less than 120 ns, a jitter less than 30 ns, a trigger voltage threshold less than 3 kV, a trigger current threshold less than 5 A, and a working life more than 800 times.