Preliminary performance results of a high-current Cs-Ba tacitron in a simple inverter

A tacitron is a gas-discharge triode that is designed to be completely grid-controlled. Demountable cesium-barium (Cs-Ba) tacitrons have exhibited very low forward voltage drops in the range of a few volts, hold-off voltages greater than 200 V, and average conduction current densities greater than 10 A/cm/sup 2/. These characteristics yield an average power switching density on the order of 10/sup 3/ W/cm/sup 2/ in excess of 95% peak switching efficiency. This parameter regime places the Cs-Ba tacitron in the range of conventional solid-state devices, with the advantage that the tacitron should reliably operate in extremes of temperature and radiation. The intent of this investigation is to determine the feasibility of constructing a 6 kW continuous power inverter unit with a pair of high-current tacitrons.