Triggering characteristics of trigatron gas switch triggered by preionization

Using spark preionization, a trigatron gas switch is designed in the paper. The trigger electrode is disk-ring nested structure with 10 mm spacing, The electrode of switch is made from 304 stainless for operating voltage level up to 100 kV. Experimental results show that the preionization could reduce the trigger delay and jitter of the trigatron under low working voltage obviously. The earlier the preionization is imposed, the lower the delay and jitter of trigatron is under nanosecond trigger pulses. The average delay of 40 ns and jitter of 1 ns or better is achieved when the trigatron switch works at the coefficient of 80% with the trigger pulse of 30 kV and 8 ns risetime.