Pulsed Surface Flash-over For Triggering Arcs Under Flow Conditions

The author has earlier developed Triggered Vacuum Gaps for low Voltage repetetive switching of high current arcs under DC conditions in Vacuum. In those investigations, a number of ceramic insulator materials like Barium Titanate, Lead Titanate, Silicon Carbide, Rutile and Sillimanite gave reasonably good performance for switching arcs in Vacuum (10
^-6
torr). Presently self-Triggered high flow arc-heaters are under investigation for various Plasma-Process applications. This paper presents a few salient features in the design of coaxial spaced-electrode structures with built-in Trigger assembly utilizing some of the above ceramic materials.