Experimental investigation of ultrafast and high current semiconductor switch

Some interesting characteristics of the solid-state semiconductor switch, the reverse switching dynistor(RSD), such as the time of voltage fall, current carrying capability and current rise rate, were investigated under the condition of being the closing switch of capacitive energy storage. A 25 ns voltage-falling time was achieved. When the voltage of main capacitor was 8 kV, the peak value of current pulse was 10.1 kA, pulse width and current rise rate were 34 μs and 2.03 kA/μs respectively. After adjusting parameters of the main discharge circuit, a current pulse was obtained at peak current of 8.5 kA with current rise rate of 7.2 kA/μs only when the main capacitor voltage was 3 kV. Experimental results show that RSD is a new type of high power semiconductor switch with fast turn-on,