Influence factors and improvement scheme on the breakdown behavior of pseudospark switch

High-power pulse generators are widely used in civil and military fields. The main switch directly determines the output characteristics of the high-power pulse generators, such as the voltage front time (tf). Pseudospark switches (PSS) show a promising future for middle voltage, high repetitive frequency pulse power applications. However, how to further improve the breakdown behavior without reducing its advantages is a challenging task. In this paper, the influence of operating parameters (anode voltage UA and gas pressure p) and structural parameter (number of cathode holes) on the breakdown behavior are investigated, the related mechanism are explained, and specific improvement schemes are proposed. It is found that the tf of the single channel PSS (SCPSS) decreased significantly with increasing p, but hardly varied with UA under moderate p. However, it is not a sound solution to increase the p excessively to reduce tf. Besides, increasing the number of cathode holes can obtain a shorter tf at low pressures (which implies superior repetition frequency performance). However, at 25 Pa, the jitter (which is defined as the standard deviation of tf in multiple tests) of the 2-channel PSS is larger than that of the SCPSS. And the jitter of the 4-channel and 8-channel PSS is also greater than 6 ns and 2 ns, respectively. Through experimental and simulation analyses, it can be explained as the stepwise penetration of the virtual anode and the non-simultaneous ignition of the channels. A scheme to increase the trigger energy (ϵ) has been adopted to improve the simultaneous ignition probability, while shortening tf and reducing jitter. After optimization, the good ignition probability of the 4-channel PSS has been improved to 82% and the jitter has been reduced to less than 1 ns at 25 Pa and 14.7 mJ.