Surface Flashover of Alumina Ceramic Insulators in
Vacuum
Ao Xu
Yanlin Cheng
Institute of Electronic Engineering
Institute of Electronic Engineering
China Academy of Engineering Physics
China Academy of Engineering Physics
Mianyang, China
Mianyang, China
Lei Chen
Yangjun Lei
Institute of Electronic Engineering
Institute of Electronic Engineering
China Academy of Engineering Physics
China Academy of Engineering Physics
Mianyang, China
Mianyang, China
Abstract—The high-voltage performance of insulator is one of
the main areas of pulsed power research and development, and
the surface flashover voltage is the critical factor strongly
influencing the voltage hold-off capability of vacuum pulsed
power devices. In this work, the influence of different electrodes
and boundary conditions on the electric field distribution at the
triple junction was simulated and experimentally studied. The
results indicate the value of Vho can be raised significantly as the
screening length increased from 3mm to 18mm, the hold-off
voltage of the screening electrode is up to 150 kV and over 50%
higher than that of the plate electrode. However, the hold-off
voltage decrease after the screening electrode becomes longer
than ~18 mm. The reason for the observed wide dispersion in the
breakdown values for the different electrodes was explored by
examining surface structures of the insulator under an SEM
(Scanning Electron Micrograph). When the value of screening
length is greater than 18mm, we could find breakdown point in
special area. For the better explanation of the experiment
phenomenon, a simulation model of the surface flashover in
vacuum with special configuration is established by a 2D PIC-
DSMC code, in which some basic physical process such as field
emission in the vicinity of the metal-vacuum-dielectric junction,
charge accumulation effect in insulator surface, secondary
electron emission, gas desorption, and electrons interact with gas
etc are considered. These simulation results are in comparison
with the experiment phenomenon, these are the base to in-depth
understand surface flashover in vacuum. A new developing
process of surface flashover in vacuum by high voltage pulses is
also discussed.
Keywords—Surface flashover, alumina insulator, electrode,
vacuum.
I. INTRODUCTION
The high voltage performance of insulator is one of the
main areas of pulsed power research and development, and the
surface flashover voltage is the critical factor strongly
influencing the voltage hold-off capability of vacuum pulsed
power devices. Surface flashover in vacuum insulation
material becomes a non–ignorable problem in the development
of pulse power technology, as higher power, higher capacity
and miniaturization are required for the pulse power devices in
978-1-5386-4375-4/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
111
Wei Xiang
Institute of Electronic Engineering
China Academy of Engineering Physics
Mianyang, China
Binghua Tang
Institute of Electronic Engineering
China Academy of Engineering Physics
Mianyang, China
future. Considerable researches on the effect of the insulator
geometry on surface flashover indicated that the geometry can
have a strong effect on surface flashover. Single-pulsed
surface flashover voltage of insulator can be considerably
improved by reasonable design of insulator geometry.
However, the influence of the depth of the metal, boundary
conditions, the orthogonal angle between the solid insulator
and the recessed electrode on the electric field, and withstand
voltage of the gap so far have not been reported in detail.
Research on surface flashover of the vacuum insulation under
pulsed voltage is significant for the design and manufacture of
pulse power devices.
II. EXPERIMENTS AND SIMULATION MODEL
A. Experimental setup
A schematic of electrical circuit of the experimental system
is shown in Figure 1. All tests were carried out in a glass
envelope chamber. In our experiments, the vacuum level was
kept at 5×10-3Pa. Different negative electrodes and insulator
geometries are designed to improve flashover voltage of
insulators; and samples are tested under single high-voltage
microsecond pulses generated by a Tesla transformer. Applied
voltage is measured by a capacitive voltage divider which is
located at the entrance of the vacuum chamber, and flashover
current is observed by a self integrating Rogowski coil inserted
in the vacuum chamber. Both voltage and current are recorded
by the oscillograph.
B. Electrode and insulator configurations
Test samples consist of hollow cylindrical alumina
insulators combined with different negative electrodes, as
shown in Figure 2. The insulators are 33 mm in diameter and
50 mm in length. Different insulator geometries are designed
and shown in Figure 3. Before the experiments, insulators are
first cleaned by ultrasonic, and then they are dipped into
deionized water for 10 minutes, baked at 500℃ for 30 minutes,
and finally baked at 100℃ for 4 hours. Electrodes, made of
stainless steel and with a thickness of 5 mm, are first cleaned
by ultrasonic, and then they are dipped into deionized water for
10 minutes, baked at 300℃ for 30 minutes, and finally baked at
100℃ for 4 hours. Every electrode has been tested using three
insulator samples. All experiments were carried out at 24±4℃
temperature and 60%±5% relative humidity.
C. Simulation model
A simulation model of the surface flashover in vacuum with
special configuration is established by a 2D PIC-DSMC code,
shown in Figure 4, in which some basic physical process such
as field emission in the vicinity of the metal-vacuum-dielectric
junction, charge accumulation effect in insulator surface,
secondary electron emission, gas desorption, and electrons
interact with gas etc are considered. In the two-dimension
simulation model, an insulator with a relative permittivity of
9.6 is placed between two electrodes. The electrons are emitted
by the Fowler-Nordheim model. The electrons will move under
the control of the EM-field until they strike the anode or the
insulator, and some of the electrons absorbed by the insulator
can emit secondary electrons.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup

Fig. 4. Simulation model

III. RESULTS AND DICUSSION

A. Experimental results
Surface flashover voltages of cylindrical alumina insulators
are measured in vacuum in different cathode electrodes using
single-pulse. The influence of the depth of the metal of the
((a) Plate electrode (b) Screening electrode screening electrode on the withstand voltage of the insulator
Fig. 2. Schematic illustration of the alumina insulators and different electrode have been shown in Figure 5. It can be seen from Figure 5 the
arrangement value of hold-off voltage(Vho) can be raised significantly as the
screening length increased from 3mm to18 mm, The hold-off
voltage of the screening electrode is up to 150 kV and over
50% higher than that of the plate electrode. However, the hold-
off voltage decrease after the screening electrode becomes
longer than ~18 mm. The reason for the observed wide
dispersion in the breakdown values for the different electrodes
was explored by examining surface structures of the insulator
under an SEM. The micrographs of only a selected few results
were shown in figure 6, which are particularly interesting, are
presented here. when the value of b is greater than 18mm, we
could find breakdown point in special area.

Fig. 3. Insulator Geometriesc

Fig. 5. Dependence of the pulsed flashover voltage of 95% Al2O3 insulators

at the different screening electrodes

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Fig. 6. Scanning electron micrograph of 95% Al2O3 insulators following
repeated breakdowns

The Vho of the different insulator shapes are shown in

Figure 7, indicate that the exact shape of an insulator can have Fig. 8. Evolution of density distribution of electrons
a strong effect upon its surface flashover. Geometrical effects
can include reducing the fields at the triple junctions (especially
the cathode), increasing the flashover length, and reducing
electron avalanches along the surface. The simplest shape, a
cylinder, generally has lower hold-off voltages than do more
complex shapes. The poorest insulator performance seems to be
for cones with slight negative angles.

Fig. 9. Evolution of density distribution of carbon dioxide

Fig. 7. The pulsed flashover voltage of 95% Al2O3 insulators at the different
insulator shapes
B. Simulation results
Evolution of density distribution of electrons is shown in
Fig 8. Evolution of density distribution of carbon dioxide is
shown in Fig 9. The simulation results in Fig 8 show that the
flashover process changes when the shielding length of the
shield electrode exceeds 18mm. The initial field emission
electrons occur at the field strength distortion of the cathode
near the anode rather than the cathode triple junction (metal-
vacuum-ceramic). Because the R end of cathode chamfering
closer to the anode is the stronger area of field intensity
distortion, the first step is to reach the threshold of field
emission an emit enough electrons to induce breakdown.
Figure 2 also shows that it is not the gap breakdown between
cathode and anode, but the breakdown between cathode,
ceramic surface and anode. These simulation results are in
comparison with the experiment phenomenon. These are the
base to in-depth understand surface flashover in vacuum and
further enhance the performance of components.
IV. DISCUSSION
Many theory and experiments contributing to the
mechanism of surface flashover in vacuum have been
reported, however, it is still far from being very clear. In our
opinion, the two most common theories, the secondary
electron emission avalanche theory (SEEA) and the electron
triggered polarization relation theory (ETPR), are used to
explain surface flashover development [1,13]. It has been
found that the ETPR theory is not satisfied with fast pulsed
flashover because its problem accounting for flashover time
lag of nanosecond order. Therefore, the secondary electron
emission avalanche theory is suitable for explanation of the
single high-voltage microsecond pulses flashover. There are
three important stages for the explanation of flashover process
should be taken into account: The first stage is the appearance
of seed electrons. In a prevalent opinion, electron emission
(generally by electric-field emission or thermal–field
emission) at the cathode triple junction (CTJ) area provides
these effective initial electrons [1,5,7]. The development stage

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is electron multiplication process. In microsecond pulse
flashover, secondary electron emission will be of great
importance [6]. This emission is due to the collision between
predecessor electrons and insulator surface, and produces
saturated secondary emission avalanche. In addition, gas
desorption from insulator surface also occurs in this stage, and
some species would be gasified from the surface [8,11]. The
final stage is the breakdown development of flashover
channel. Flashover is in fact a type of gaseous discharge
[8].Flashover is completed in a thin gas layer very near the
insulator surface. Both desorption and gasification provided
gaseous dielectric required for breakdown.
As the length of b increased, the max electrical field in the
emitter arrangements grew greater. When the b is greater than
18mm, the increasing shows a trend of more acceleration.
However, we could find that all the breakdown point located
in specific site. The specific site was addressed as “dark area”
in this paper. The dark area was found transiently in surface
flashover developing process. The mechanism is shown in
figure 10, as follows: (a) Field emission electrons from the
cathode impact on the alumina surface for the applied field
high enough to cause field emission [3,6]. (b) The field
emission electrons and SEEA extends on alumina surface and
the electron impact on alumina around cathode decreases due
to the electric field distribution. (c) Electron-induced
outgassing takes place with the onset of secondary electron
emission. (d) The outgassing process culminates in the electric
gaseous breakdown that is characterized by the above surface
plasma formation. The electron multiplication is caused due to
some of anode interaction and development of SEEA and the
conducting channel starts to be formed from the anode.
Fig. 10. Sketch of physical processes involved in surface flashover
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V. CONCLUSIONS
The phenomenon of vacuum flashover is related to complex
physical process and many disciplines. The mechanism of
vacuum flashover is not very clear, so it is worth further
research on vacuum flashover. In this paper, several new
insulator structures are studied from three aspects of
experiment, simulation and theory. The reasonable design of
the electrode geometry and insulator geometry can
considerably improve the surface flashover performance of
insulators. The value of Vho can be raised significantly; the
reliable voltage hold-off of the screening electrode is up to 150
kV and over 50% higher than that of the plate electrode. The
measurements show good qualitative agreement with the
behavior from the computation, and a new developing process
of surface flashover in vacuum by high voltage pulses is also
discussed.
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