A HIGH-SPEED OPENING, COMPACT, HIGH REPETITION RATE OPENING SWITCH

A COMPACT OPENING SWITCH THAT CAN OPEN (OR TURN-ON) IN SUB-NANOSECOND TIMES WITH PEAK POWER CAPABILITY IN GW REGIME AND AVERAGE POWER CAPABILITY IN 100 KW IS SOUGHT FOR IMPLEMENTING COMPACT PULSARS. THE PHASE I PROGRAM WILL CONDUCT AN INVESTIGATION AND LITERATURE SEARCH TO DETERMINE THE OPENING SWITCH TECHNOLOGY (PLASMA, VACUUM, SOLID-STATE, ETC.) MOST SUITABLE FOR OBTAINING THE TARGET SPECIFICATIONS SETFORTH BY AGENCY. AT PRESENT, TO THE CONTRACTOR'S BEST KNOWLEDGE, PLASMA EROSION OPENING SWITCHES ARE NOT YET COMPACTIZED, VACUUM OPENING SWITCHES ARE NOT SAFE BY PRODUCING X-RAYS WHEN OPERATED AT HIGH VOLTAGES GREATER THAN 30 KV, AND SOLID-STATE OPENING SWITCHES ARE NOT YET SUITABLE AT REQUIRED CURRENT LEVEL GREATER THAN 10 KA. MORE DETAILED INVESTIGATION AND LITERATURE SEARCH WILL BE NEEDED AS TO FIND OUT ANSWERS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT AND INFORMATION FOR THE MOST UP-DATED TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT. AS AN ADDITIONAL WORK FOR PHASE I, THE CONTRACTOR PROPOSES A THROUGH INVESTIGATION OF THE DENSE PLASMA FOCUS (DPF) OPENING SWITCH. THE DPF OPENING SWITCH (DPF-OS) IS LONG KNOWN AS A COMPACT, HIGH-POWER OPENING SWITCH PARTLY BECAUSE OF THE ALL-METAL, PULSE-POWER CONSTRUCTION. THE DPF-OS READILY SATISFIES THE TARGET SPECIFICATIONS OF THE MINIMUM CURRENT, PEAK POWER, AND ENERGY/PULSE. HOWEVER, THE OPENING TIME IS PRESENTLY 1-100 NS AND THE UPPER-LIMIT OF REP-RATE HAS NOT EXPERIMENTALLY BEEN EXAMINED. IN ORDER TO ACCELERATE THE OPENING TIME, THE CONTRACTOR PROPOSES A PLASMA FILLED, NON-FIELD TRAPPING DPF. AND FOR A HIGH REP-RATE PROPOSE IS A FAT (OR SMALL ASPECT RATIO) DPF WHICH SHORTENS THE RUN-DOWN TIME OF CURRENT SHEET. PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION REVEALS THAT SUB-NANOSECOND OPENING TIMES AND A REP-RATE FASTER THAN 3KHZ ARE FEASIBLE WITH A DPF-OS. THE PHASE I WORK WILL INCLUDE THE THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL DEMONSTRATION IN A LIMITED BASE.