Prebreakdown Currents in a Sealed-off Two-Section Cold-Cathode Thyratron and Methods for Increasing the Breakdown Voltage

Abstract

The data on the measured static breakdown voltages and pre-breakdown currents flowing in the main gap of a two-section, sealed-off thyratron with a cold-cathode TPI1-10k/50 are presented. It is shown that pre-breakdown current in the lower section appears at lower voltages than in the upper section. A few methods are proposed for increasing the thyratron breakdown voltage via re-distribution of the voltage between the sections using capacitive and resistive voltage dividers. It is demonstrated that either the self-capacitance of one of the sections or the resistance due to the pre-breakdown current flow could serve as one of the arms of the divider.