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Direct current energized pulse generator utilizing autogenous cyclical pulsed abnormal glow discharges

  • US 5,502,354 A
  • Filed: 04/19/1994
  • Issued: 03/26/1996
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/31/1992
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A pulse generator comprising a cold cathode vacuum discharge tube having an anode and a cathode enclosed within an evacuated housing, wherein the cathode has an extended surface facing the anode and the cathode is capable of auto-electronic emissions under abnormal glow discharge conditions, which emissions have an extinction potential substantially higher than the sustaining potential of a vacuum arc discharge in the same tube, said discharge tube being connected in an external circuit comprising a continuous direct current source connected between the anode and the cathode, the external circuit being capable of delivering a potential sufficient to initiate auto-electronic emissions, and sufficient current at sufficient potential to drive said tube into a negative resistance region of abnormal glow discharge, the external circuit having an impedance sufficient that, as the tube is driven into said negative resistance region, potential between the anode and the cathode collapses below said extinction potential before a vacuum arc is established, whereby an endogenous cyclical pulsed abnormal glow discharge (PAGD) will occur, the cathode being of sufficiently robust construction to enable it to withstand sustained PAGD and erosion resulting therefrom without disruption or substantial thermionic emission, the surface of the cathode facing the anode being of a metal and having an area which promotes auto-electronic emission at much lower currents than predicted by the Fowler-Nordheim field emission theory, and the minimum separation of the cathode from the anode being at least about 2 cm.

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