Methods of triggering for the cold-cathode thyratrons with a trigger system based on an auxiliary glow discharge

Abstract

The paper deals with the investigations of the modernized version of the cold-cathode thyratron TPI1-10k/50 as applied to the problem of nanosecond triggering. The newly developed trigger unit of the device is based on the low-current auxiliary glow discharge with hollow cathode and hollow anode. The regimes for sustaining the auxiliary discharge have been recommended. The characteristic feature of the regimes is that the parasitic current to the main cathode appears due to the ion flow. In such conditions, a rather high hold-off voltage of the device (at a level of 40 kV) is assured. The thyratron with the novel trigger system offers a possibility to use very different methods of triggering. We have proposed and investigated three methods providing the nanosecond stability with respect to the instant at which the trigger pulse arrives to the trigger system. The best results correspond to the case when the jitter in triggering does not exceed of 3 ns.