Flashover in Back-Triggered Photoconductive Semiconductor Switch

Design of a new type of photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSSs) is presented, and the withstand voltage is improved. The flashover voltage of the back-triggered PCSS is found to be higher than that of the front-triggered one. By analyzing the differences of the flashover voltage between the back-triggered PCSS and the front-triggered PCSS, a detailed statistics analysis and theoretical explanation are expounded. The experiments also prove that the PCSS we developed could resist a voltage as high as 20 kV under the repetition frequency of 30 Hz.