AFRL Deploys Oil-Filled Switch Technology Published Dec. 12, 2006 By Plans and Programs Directorate AFRL/XP WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- AFRL researchers deployed a novel oil-filled switch technology developed over the last 3 years. This device incorporates advances in switching technology made at the University of Missouri-Columbia and Alpha-Omega Power Technologies. The newly deployed high-voltage switch utilizes the poly-a-olefin dielectric coolant already resident on most airframes as the switching medium, enabling the operation of a high-power microwave (HPM) system through the aircraft's existing hydraulic fluid. This feature offers significant advantages over gas-filled switches. HPM sources typically require the generation of electron beams with energies in excess of 500 keV and currents of many tens of kA. Therefore, employment of an HPM source on an aircraft presents challenges related to space, weight, and power requirements. The oil-filled switch overcomes most of these difficulties with its unique compact design, which utilizes high-pressure, flowing hydraulic fluid as the medium for repetitive, high-voltage switching. Since hydraulic fluid is already present on most airframes, the new switch does not necessitate that a new material be incorporated into air platforms. Furthermore, the switch has the advantage of being far more compact than the standard blown-gas switches that AFRL commonly employs. AFRL researchers integrated the novel oil-filled switch technology into the laboratory's general repetition-rate universal multipurpose pulser system, and they are collecting extended lifetime data. This data collection effort includes the development of specifications necessary for operating the switch in an HPM system. Once such protocols become available, the switch could become a standard laboratory component.