Multichannel discharge characteristics of a plasma-jet triggered gas switch

In this paper, a plasma-jet triggered gas switch was designed to form multichannel discharge. Multiple micro-incentive chambers were embedded in the trigger electrode to form multichannel plasma jet. The influences of trigger circuit, energy and polarity on the multichannel plasma jet were studied. The relationship between discharge channel numbers of every spark gap and working coefficient was also investigated at two working modes. Experimental results show that the multichannel discharge characteristics of trigger electrode are better when the upper plate of the trigger electrode is directly grounded. High trigger energy, negative polarity and low gas pressure are conducive to the formation of multichannel plasma jet. The plasma jet triggering can effectively induce multichannel discharge of gas switch. The discharge channel number increases with the increase of working coefficient.