Accurate and efficient characterization of a spark gap by fitting single discharge experiments with a simple circuit theory and PSpice modeling

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Abstract
This work introduces a refined method for accurately and efficiently characterizing the electrical properties of a self-breakdown spark-gap switch using a single discharge test. In the experimental demonstration, a well-calibrated high-voltage (HV) capacitor is charged to approximately 10 kV and discharged through the spark gap under test. The simultaneously measured current and voltage waveforms across the spark gap are analyzed using a simple circuit model and a multiple-linear-regression method to concurrently determine the spark-gap inductance and resistance from a single discharge without requiring time-consuming plasma fluid or particle simulations. Ten sequential single-discharge tests yielded average values of 13.6 ± 0.3 nH and 0.202 ± 0.007   Ω for the inductance and resistance of the spark-gap, respectively. With the electrical properties of the HV capacitor known from previous characterization, the stray inductance and resistance of the connecting wires can be isolated and calculated by subtracting the capacitor and spark-gap contributions from the total circuit parameters. A PSpice parametric analysis is further employed to assess and verify the equivalent-circuit model by comparing the simulated waveforms with both the experimental waveforms and the fitting curves obtained from the simple circuit theory (SCT) analysis. This close agreement confirms the consistency of both the extracted spark-gap parameters and the calculated stray circuit parameters. These small statistical errors indicate that the proposed SCT method provides a practical approach for accurately and efficiently determining the inductance and resistance of a spark-gap for use in HV and pulsed-power applications.
Funding Information
  • National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), Taiwan (112-2112-M-006-027)
  • Hanyang University
  • National Research Foundation (RS-2026-25604327)
  • Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation, MSIT, Korea (RS-2020-II201373)

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