Parametric Characterization of Discharge Delays of a Pseudospark Discharge

This article investigates the statistical reliability and delay of a ferroelectric triggered pseudospark (PS) device in helium, with a moderate gap voltage of 2–8 kV. An up and down (U&D) test protocol is used to estimate the trigger voltage needed to reach 99% trigger reliability. Two ferroelectric materials, PZT and BaTiO <tex-math notation="LaTeX">₃</tex-math> , are tested. The PZT trigger experiences significant degradation under repetitive tests, while the BaTiO <tex-math notation="LaTeX">₃</tex-math> trigger remains stable under the same conditions. We apply different helium pressures, anode–cathode voltages, and trigger voltages on the setup to observe their influence on discharge delays. It is found that increasing the trigger voltage up to 8 kV significantly reduces the discharge delays and jitters. Some experimental conditions are repeated more extensively to investigate the probability distribution underlying discharge delays. Two families of statistical models are considered: the exponentially modified Gaussian (EMG) distribution and the Weibull distribution. The results show that both EMG and Weibull distributions model fit quite well the discharge delays distribution. In particular, when a higher trigger voltage is applied, the increase of the shape parameter <tex-math notation="LaTeX">n₀</tex-math> (Weibull model) is associated with a more stable hollow cathode seeding, and the decrease of the time constant <tex-math notation="LaTeX">τ</tex-math> (EMG model) is consistent with a faster hollow cathode seeding.