Effects of void size and gas content on electrical breakdown in lightweight, mechanically compliant, void-filled dielectrics

Dielectric potting materials (encapsulants) are used to prevent air breakdown in high-voltage electrical devices. We report breakdown strengths in void-filled encapsulants, stressed with unipolar voltage pulses of the order of 10 mus duration. High strengths, on the order of 100 kV mm(-1), are measured under these test conditions. The materials studied include low-density open celled gel-derived foams with cell sizes of 4 mum or less, closed celled CO2-blown polystyrene and urethane foams, and epoxies containing 48 vol % of hollow glass microballoon (GMB) fillers. These last specimens varied the void gas (N-2 or SO2) and also the void diameters (tens to hundreds of mum). Our measurements are thought to be directly sensitive to the rate of field-induced ionization events in the void gas; however, the breakdown strengths of the materials tested appeared to vary in direct proportion with the conventional Paschen-law gas-discharge inception threshold, the electric stress at which gas-ionization avalanches become possible. The GMB-epoxy specimens displayed this type of dependence of breakdown strength on the void-gas density and void size, but the measurements were an order of magnitude above the conventional predictions. Small-celled foams also showed increased breakdown strengths with decreased cell size, although their irregular void geometry prevented a direct comparison with the more uniformly structured microballoon-filled encapsulants. The experimental observations are consistent with a breakdown mechanism in which the discharge of a few voids can launch a full breakdown in the composite material. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.