United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force

Thomas Burkes

Rodney A Petr

Stanley R Byron

Israel Smilanski

The low pressure gas-filled thyratron is scalable in the long dimension. Internally the tube is formed as a tetrode, with an auxiliary grid placed between the cathode and the control grid. A DC or pulsed power source drives the auxiliary grid both to insure uniform cathode emission and to provide a grid-cathode plasma prior to commutation. The high voltage holdoff structure consists of the anode, the control grid and its electrostatic shielding baffles, and a main quartz insulator. A small gas flow supply and exhaust system is used that eliminates the need for a hydrogen reservoir and permits other gases, such as helium, to be used. The thyratron provides a low inductance, high current, long lifetime switch configuration; useful for switch-on applications involving large scale lasers and other similar loads that are distributed in a linear geometry.

Growing community of inventors

Lubbock, TX, United States of America

Thomas Burkes