HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRICALLY EXPLODED FOIL OPENING SWITCHES

Abstract Electrically exploded foil fuses have been employed as high energy opening switches for several years (Ref 1,2). As stored energies evolve into the tens of megajoules and currents rise to near one hundred megamperes , small improvements in fuse performance could have significant effects on the amount of energy transferred to a load . In this paper we examine changes in the parameters of aluminum fuses that produce improved fuse performance when operated without a load. The factors of fuse thickness and fuse quench are seen to affect fuse performance as well as alteration of the fuse mass, length, and width. Those fuses tha t performed the "best" were examined and their result~ analyzed in both the time domain and the specific energy domain