METHOD AND DEVICE FOR RECTIFYING AC CURRENT Russian patent published in 1998 - IPC

FIELD: gaseous-discharge engineering; plasma valves. SUBSTANCE: method involves use of thermionic valve for rectifying ac current; interelectrode gap is filled with alkali metal vapors at pressure not over 300 Pa, AC voltage is applied, non-self-sustained arc discharge is fired at positive potential across anode and glow discharge is fired at negative potential across anode. Anode temperature is maintained 10 to 20 K higher than alkali metal vapor temperature; this temperature and interelectrode gap are found from definite analytical expressions. Thermionic valve has heat-insulating vessel holding alkali metal, casing provided with heater that has anode and cathode, variable-conductance heat pipe with heat-insulated gas-accumulating space and self-contained heater, anode temperature sensor, and controller whose input communicates with sensor and outputs, with heater. EFFECT: enlarged range of rectified voltages and reduced power loss during ac voltage rectification. 2 cl, 3 dwg