Field distortion gas switch is one of the crucial elements in a Marx generator, fast linear transformer driver and other pulsed power installations. The performance of the gas switch, which is dramatically affected by the surface roughness due to electrode erosion during the discharge process, directly influences the output parameters, stability and reliability of the pulsed power system. In this paper, an electrode surface roughness （ESR） calculation model has been established based on a great deal of experimental data under operating current. The discharge current waveform, the peak height of the burr, the radius and the depth of etch pits in the electrode erosion region were used to predict the ESR. Also, experimental results indicate that this calculation model can effectively estimate the ESR of the test gas switch.
A whole circuit model of a linear transformer drivers （LTD） module composed of 60 cavities in series was developed in the software PSPICE to study the influence of switching jitter on the operational performances of LTDs. In the model, each brick in each cavity is capable of operating with jitter in its switch. Additionally, the manner of triggering cables entering into cavities was considered. The performances of the LTD module operating with three typical cavity-triggering sequences were simulated and the simulation results indicate that switching jitter affects slightly the peak and starting time of the output current pulse. However, the enhancement in switching jitter would significantly lengthen the rise time of the output current pulse. Without considering other factors, a jitter lower than 10 ns may be necessary for the switches in the LTD module to provide output current parameters with an acceptable deviation.
Output-pulse shaping capability of a linear transformer driver （LTD） module under different conditions is studied, by conducting the whole circuit model simulation by using the PSPICE code. Results indicate that a higher impedance profile of the internal transmission line would lead to a wider adjustment range for the output current rise time and a narrower adjustment range for the current peak. The number of cavities in series has a positive effect on the output- pulse shaping capability of LTD. Such an improvement in the output-pulse shaping capability can primarily be ascribed to the increment in the axial electric length of LTD. For a triggering time interval longer than the time taken by a pulse to propagate through the length of one cavity, the output parameters of LTD could be improved significantly. The present insulating capability of gas switches and other elements in the LTD cavities may only tolerate a slightly longer deviation in the triggering time interval. It is feasible for the LTD module to reduce the output current rise time, though it is not useful to improve the peak power effectively.
Based on a transmission line code, a circuit model is proposed that could serve as the basic method for the analysis of linear transformer driver （LTD）-based accelerators. By using 1 MA, 100 kV LTD cavities, the peak load current is optimized for a total of N cavities between 500 and 1200. The simulation results suggest that, with the same number of cavities, the peak current changes obviously with the types of combinations, and the maximum change can be as large as 1.2 MA. The results also show that, for the cases considered, the optimized peak current as a function of the total number of cavities agrees with the exponential associate, and the peak current for one level LTD cannot be enhanced infinitely. Furthermore, it is found that, to obtain a 20 MA peak load current, at least 1029 LTD cavities （49 in series and 21 in parallel connection） are needed. Finally, the typical parameters of the optimized design are compared to those of the existing Z accelerator.
