Abstract

Inductive energy pulsed power systems have an advantage over capacitive systems due to their compactness.¹ However, the conventional opening switches required by these systems suffer some drawbacks, such as single shot operation, short conduction periods, slow opening times, and inaccurate triggering. These drawbacks do not exist in optically activated semiconductor switches if the laser pulse is specially tailored for this application.² We report the first observation of voltage multiplication using an optically activated semiconductor switch and a current charged transmission line (CCTL). The voltage multiplication factor is defined as the ratio of the output voltage to the bias voltage. The best factor obtained was 3.6.

© 1990 Optical Society of America