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Volume discharge 'spark gap' (fwd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 05:24:49 -0700
From: Scott Stephens <stephens-at-enteract-dot-com>
To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Volume discharge 'spark gap'
I've just read about a delightfull device called an EBCS- Electron Beam
Controlled Switch. This is not realy a spark gap, it is a wide spaced, large
area gap at 1-3 atmosphere pressure (air, more or less 02) that is excited
by an electron beam.
It is more like an enhancment mode FET transistor; Electrons injected
through a foil, across a cathode grid provides charge carriers to close the
switch. Its current gain is 10-15. It can turn on in 10ns and off in around
100ns
The articles conclusion states that ultraviolet and/or insulator flashover
might be used to excite the switch in place of an electron beam (I don't
look forward to etching the screen down on my video monitor tube ;)
Anyone ever play with spark gaps, to the point of creating a linear,
self-quenching gap modulated with a corona grid?