Influence of the experimental set-up and voltage ramp on the dielectric breakdown strength and breakdown site in borosilicate glass

摘要

The dielectric breakdown strength of borosilicate glass and alumina was measured as a function of the voltage ramp rate on different material thicknesses and with different electrode configurations. While this is not a completely new approach, with our work we want to highlight the importance of appropriate measurement setup and contribute to a better understanding and analysis of dielectric breakdown. The measurement of breakdown tests is generally anything but trivial and the comparison of breakdown results for different set-ups is difficult, especially because not all scientific articles go into detail on the measurement method and all the important parameters, which can influence the breakdown event. For the results shown in this work we mainly used glass as a suitable model material and two different electrode setups at eleven different voltage ramps in the range of 5 V/s to 10,000 V/s. We found that there is a clear dependence of the dielectric breakdown strength on the voltage ramp and the electrode configuration as well as it should be distinguished between breakdowns which initiated at electrode edge and those initiated within the electrode area. There is almost no scatter for breakdown strengths which were initiated inside a silver paste electrode in comparison to breakdown strength from the electrode edges.