Development of a 75 Coulomb triggered vacuum switch

We designed, fabricated, and tested sealed-off triggered vacuum switches (TVSs) used as an ETC-gun switch. To fabricate the sealed-off TVS, we developed processes of the fabrication such as part machining, chemical cleaning, ceramic to metal and metal to metal brazing, metal welding, baking, getter processing and test procedures. The fabricated switches were tested with capacitor banks of 100 kJ and 300 kJ. The prototype switches were successfully tested up to 20 kV peak charging voltage, 109 kA peak current, 1.5 ms pulse-width, and 75-coulomb integrated charge transfer at 300 kJ capacitor bank. Compared to other reported similar switches, the tested switch showed high quality electrical characteristics in high operating voltage, high charge transfer, and long pulse operation.