When an insulator is breached, Johnny, there is a hole bored through it by the electron stream. After that, it is never the same as it was pre-breach. The same cannot be said for a vacuum.
Most packaged spark gaps are gas-filled. Gas is an insulator, pre-spark, but a spark doesn't bore a hole through it. Some spark gaps are rated for many thousand of operations.
The problem with vacuum gaps is that the breakdown mechanism is the ripping of electrons and ions off the electrodes, and that's really bad for electrode wear. The breakover voltage is hard to predict because it's critically dependent on the metallic surface finish.
John
Now THAT is novel... "hole bored through it"!
Bwahahahahaha!
...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave
No, It generally temporarily ionizes it, which would qualify the mix as a semi-conductor. Also, I referred to solid insulators, not gas "environs".
Which in the case of a spark gap is typically always a point, which has a very well defined high gradient. We are not talking about two spheres in space here.
I have seen photo-micrographs to back my statements. You?
"Discharge Tubes" can have inert gas that gives good repeatibility of breakdown. Good examples are xenon flashlamps, especially if triggered by series or pseudoseries mode. Those two modes only have the flashlamp connected by 2 leads! Flashlamp characteristic is usually not changed much from flash # 500 to flash # 50,000. Or in a more agrressive application with 5,000 flashes likely to cause significant aging, the flashlamp does normally have all performance characteristics similar from flashb #40 to flash #2000!
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
Regular neon bulbs are good 90V regulators, and quite consistent as well.
No, the syaye of the gas is "plasma", not semiconductor.
Also, I referred to solid insulators, not gas
Why the hell did you do that? We were discussing "vacuum spark gaps."
John
No. The surface finish at the nanometer level affects breakdown. Google "atom probe."
So who sells vacuum spark gaps?
John
They use gas! But their initial breakdown voltage is still erratic. Some gaps use a radioactive additive to provide a background ionization level that makes the breakover voltage and the time delay much more consistant.
John
Umm, are we talking about a micrograph of a hole bored through a gas, or a hole bored through vacuum?
John
No, we were discussing INSULATORS, and how a vacuum is NOT an insulator, but a GAP.
No shit, idiot. Can't you read? I SAID NEON!
Nope. Pretty much right at 90V for a specifically space pair of poles. I should know, I use them is a ripple chacker design that drops UP TO 90V to a scope probe with a max of 15kV input. It is esential for checking ripple voltage on an HVDC source.
Do you always parrot others? Do you think I missed his post? Why would you think that, since I responded to it, dipshit?
Try to keep up, Johnny. We are talking about holes in an INSULATOR here. That infers a physical HARD object.
A hole punched through a matrix, such as a gas or a liquid is OBVIOUSLY going to recover. Sad that you need to have everything spelled out for you like the child you are.
No, we - at least everybody that's not you - were talking about gas and vacuum. How you wandered away to solid insulators is a mystery.
We're still waiting for that link.
John
Here are some facts:
Try this:
+150v-----------1M----------------+---------+ | | | | | | 0.1 uF NE-2 | | | | | | | | gnd gndThis is a relaxation oscillator. The cap will charge up until the neon fires, the neon discharges the cap, and it starts over. The firing voltage will vary with temperature, illumination, local electric fields, and cosmic radiation.
Now fun: put two neons in parallel. One will usually fire, but all sorts of subtle changes can cause the firing to shift between bulbs.
Parrot who?
Here's one of my krytrons, accidentally escaped from Los Alamos:
John
upon
able
THIS discussion started when *I* said that vacuum is a gap, not an insulator, you retarded f*ck. I ALSO stated, in that same post that in insulator inferred a physical medium.
No. It was YOU that wandered off, and now thinks that somehow the discussion has changed, and it is YOU that doesn't know a goddamned thing about threads.
THEN I mentioned spark gaps. Do try to keep up, asswipe.
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.