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Recovery of Vacuum Spark Gaps

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Gas Discharge Closing Switches

Part of the book series: Advances in Pulsed Power Technology ((APUT,volume 2))

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Abstract

Vacuum spark gaps may be divided into three main types, as shown in Fig. 4–16 and described in Table 4-III. A triggered vacuum gap (TVG) usually has the trigger built into the cathode. In power system applications TVGs may have triggers in both electrodes or a trigger separate from either electrode. This could include an external laser trigger. A vacuum interrupter (VI) usually operates by mechanically drawing an arc, but could be constructed with a separate trigger in order to operate as a TVG when desired. A metal plasma arc switch (MPAS) is able to turn off when desired without requiring additional external circuitry or waiting for a natural current zero.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. General Electric Company, Largo, FL, 34649, USA

    H. Craig Miller

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  1. H. Craig Miller
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Late of Polytechnic University, Farmingdale, New York, USA

    Gerhard Schaefer

  2. Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA

    M. Kristiansen

  3. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA

    A. Guenther

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© 1990 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Miller, H.C. (1990). Recovery of Vacuum Spark Gaps. In: Schaefer, G., Kristiansen, M., Guenther, A. (eds) Gas Discharge Closing Switches. Advances in Pulsed Power Technology, vol 2. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2130-7_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2130-7_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-2132-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-2130-7

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