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In this paper, the design, construction, and test procedure of a closing-switch prototype based on thyristors are described. In particular, details are given about the design criteria and the triggering board architecture, which is a high-side-biased self-supplied unit using electrical energy derived from a local snubber network for the gate drive. The structure guarantees a hard firing gate pulse for the required high-dI/dt application. Furthermore, the results of the prototype tests are presented and discussed. The stack assembly has a holding voltage of 6.5 kV and is used for switching a series resonant circuit with a ringing frequency of 12 kHz for a pulsed inductive plasma source. Maximum current amplitudes of 13 kA and pulse energies of more than 600 J were switched during the test procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microdischarges in xenon have been generated in a pressure range of 400-1013 mbar with a fixed flow rate of 100 sccm. These microdischarges are obtained from three metallic capillary tubes in series for excimer emission. Total discharge voltage is thrice as large as that of a single capillary discharge tube at current levels of up to 12 mA. Total spectral irradiance of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) emission also increases significantly compared to that of the single capillary discharge. Further, the irradiance of the VUV emission is strongly dependent on pressure as well as the discharge current. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]