Experimental Assessment of Low-Pressure Plasma Interference-Switch Performance in MW-Class Microwave Pulse Compressor

A gas discharge tube (GDT) switch operating in a MW-class microwave pulse compression (MPC) system is experimentally studied. The examined GDT operates at low-pressure conditions with constant gas intake. The experimental campaign aims to evaluate the influence of the GDT design and operational parameters on the MPC performance. The evaluated design parameters concern the GDT size and the gas flow direction, whereas the operational parameters the GDT gas pressure and flow rate at different MPC drive power and pulse repetition frequency (PRF) conditions. Experimental results show that under optimal selection of the design parameter values and a dynamic adjustment of the operational parameters, an optimal MPC performance is achieved. Under such optimal setup, the MPC system driven by 10 kW source achieves a MW-class output power level performance up to a PRF of 500 Hz.