Date of Award

Summer 1998

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Program/Concentration

Electrical Engineering

Committee Director

Karl H. Schoenbach

Committee Member

Linda L. Vahala

Committee Member

Ravindra P. Joshi

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.E55 S55

Abstract

This thesis describes the electrical properties of microhollow cathode discharges with argon as filling gas. The appearance and current-voltage characteristics of microhollow cathode discharges have been recorded. Three kinds of discharge modes (predischarge, hollow cathode discharge and abnormal discharge) have been observed. The range of operation of the hollow cathode discharge has been found to be 0.5 < pD & 5 Torr cm in argon. By reducing the hole diameter to 100 pm, we were able to operate the discharge to atmospheric pressure in a dc mode. The possibility of dc parallel operation of microhollow cathode discharges was explored. Parallel operation could be obtained without individual ballast for discharges with a positive I-V slope greater than 10 V/mA over a voltage range of more than 5 % of the sustaining voltage. For parallel operation outside the range the ballasting is required. This model was explored by using a segmented anode model. The result of the simple calculation coincides well with the experiment result, where a semi-insulator silicon was used as distributed ballast.

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DOI

10.25777/e7y6-0219

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