Test of fast SCRs as spark gap replacement

Abstract

To replace the spark gaps in the PFNs of our pulsed high power CO/sub 2/ laser first investigations on fast SCRs have been made. We report our tests on stacked high current thyristors (HCT) as a closing switch at an 8 /spl mu/F capacitor bank with various resistor loads. The charged voltage per stack unit was up to 3.6 kV. At a peak current of 9 kA, we reached a maximum di/dt of 8 kA//spl mu/s. First tests on repetitive operations have been done. The results show the possibility to replace the spark gaps of our system by HCTs.