IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 43, NO.

12, DECEMBER 2015 4161

Experimental Investigation of High-Current

Vacuum Arc Instability Modes Under
Transverse Magnetic Field
D. Feng, S. Xiu, G. Liu, Y. Wang, and Y. Zhang

Abstract— The behavior of vacuum arc influences the heat the drawn vacuum arc with butt contacts. They observed
distribution on the contacts and the contact melt and erosion, the appearance of anode jet and jet columns, and they
and thus, it greatly affects the breaking capacity after current found that the value of current when contacts separated
zero. In this paper, high-current arc instability modes were
investigated in a demountable vacuum chamber with a high-speed has influence on the formation and transition of arc modes.
charge-coupled device video camera. Three kinds of spiral Zalucki and Janiszewski [2] investigated the arcing patterns
contacts were used with CuCr50 as the contact material. between butt contacts at fixed gap distance. They summarized
We observed and summarized three types of arc instability the arc appearance into three groups: 1) constrict arcs with
modes: 1) multicolumn arc mode; 2) single stationary jet mode; a large number of autonomous cathode spots; 2) constrict
and 3) single moving jet mode. As the peak current increases, the
instability mode will transition from multicolumn arc mode to arc without or with small number of autonomous cathode
single stationary jet mode, and then to single moving jet mode. spots; and 3) diffuse arc. They also analyzed the relationship
We also found the periodical transition between the plasma jet between arc behavior and arc voltage. There are also some
and the relatively diffuse columnar arc during single moving jet experimental investigations on the arc modes under transverse
mode. It was shown that the occurrence of arc instability modes, magnetic field (TMF), but they were mainly concentrated
especially the single moving jet mode, is usually accompanied
by the increase in mean value and high fluctuations on the arc on the fixed gap distance. Boxman et al. [3] qualitatively
voltage. Besides, during the instability mode, a large number of analyzed the vacuum arc under external TMF and divided the
droplets and macroparticles will be produced in the gap. These arcing process into three stages: 1) arc formation; 2) diffuse
will have a great influence on the interruption capacity of the arc; and 3) constricted arcs. As to the TMF contacts with
vacuum interrupter. drawn vacuum arcs that are closer to the actual vacuum
Index Terms— Arc instability mode, high-speed video, interrupters, [4]–[9] dealt with the arc appearance and arc
transverse magnetic field (TMF), vacuum interrupter. voltage, they concentrated on the development of the arcing
process, and divided it into general stages, such as diffuse arc,
I. I NTRODUCTION constricted arc, moving arc, and so on.
The diffuse arc and columnar arc stages in the arcing
V ACUUM circuit breaker has now been widely used
because of its excellent performance such as great inter-
ruption capacity and litter environmental pollution. Vacuum
process with spiral-type contacts usually have low and quiet
arc voltage. These two arc modes occur in the beginning of
interrupter is the core component of the vacuum circuit the arcing process and before current zero. However, the arc
breaker. A successful high-current interruption is accom- modes in the middle part of the arcing process often have
plished by separating the contacts in the vacuum interrupter, much more instabilities, and the arc appearance and motion in
creating a vacuum arc which will extinguish until the next these stages are influenced by many factors. The instable arc
current zero. The arc appearance and the motion of vacuum is always accompanied by high mean value and fluctuation
arc have great influence on the arc voltage and the heat transfer of arc voltage, which means severe contact erosion, and it
of the contacts. Severe erosion on the contacts could happen in will affect the breaking capacity after current zero. Thus it is
high-current vacuum arc, which affects the breaking capacity necessary to further investigate the arc instability modes with
of the vacuum interrupter. TMF contacts in detail.
Some research has been carried out on the arc modes In this paper, high-current arcing process for three types of
with butt contacts. Heberlein and Gorman [1] investigated spiral-type TMF contacts was experimentally observed by a
high-speed charge-coupled device (CCD) video camera. The
Manuscript received March 13, 2015; revised August 27, 2015; accepted characteristics of three different kinds of arc instability modes,
October 26, 2015. Date of current version December 9, 2015.
D. Feng, S. Xiu, G. Liu, and Y. Wang are with the State Key Laboratory including the arc appearance, duration, the current range,
of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, Department of Electrical and arc voltage, were summarized and analyzed. Besides,
Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China (e-mail: we also discussed the transition between different modes, and
hellofdy@stu.xjtu.edu.cn; xsx@mail.xjtu.edu.cn; lg.9201@stu.xjtu.edu.cn;
wangdan@stu.xjtu.edu.cn). the relationship between arc instability mode and breaking
Y. Zhang is with Shaanxi Baoguang Vacuum Electric Device Company, capacity of vacuum interrupter. We found that the occurrences
Ltd., Baoji 721006, China (e-mail: 124972834@qq.com). of these three arc instability modes are usually accompanied
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. with the increase in mean value and the occurrence of high
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2015.2496244 fluctuation on the arc voltage, indicating high arc energy, and it
0093-3813 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

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4162 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 43, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2015

Fig. 2. Three types of spiral-type contacts used in the experiment. (a) Type I.
(b) Type II. (c) Type III.

1) Multicolumn Arc Mode: In general, multicolumn arc

mode occurs with peak current below 14.6 kA, and this
threshold current depends on the contact structure. Each single
Fig. 1. Experimental setup.
arc column of the multicolumn arc mode could be columnar
arc, jet column, or even anode jet. A typical multicolumn arc
will have bad influence on the current interruption after current mode is shown in Fig. 3.
zero. As shown in Fig. 3(a), after the contact separated, a bright
bridge column arc formed at t1 , which gradually expanded
II. E XPERIMENTAL S ETUP in Amperian direction afterward with trailing front anchored
The experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1. The test sinu- at the slot. The diameter of arc increased as the column
soidal current was supplied by an LC oscillating circuit with a expanded. At t5 , the arc began to split from anode side, and
frequency of 50 Hz. The peak current in our experiment ranges three separated anode roots gradually established. At the same
from 7 to 23 kA. Small currents were used before experiment time, the split columns contracted separately, and multicolumn
to condition the contact surface. arc mode occurred at t7 . And at t8 , the middle column of the
The experiment was carried out in a demountable vacuum multicolumn arc mode became anode jet. Fig. 4 shows two
chamber. A turbo molecular pump and a mechanical appearances of two-column arc modes in our experiment.
pump were used together to maintain the pressure of less Multicolumn arc mode usually has two or three arc columns
than 9 × 10−4 Pa during the experiment. Permanent magnetic with central plane constricted to some degree. During the
actuator was used to separate the contacts at an opening speed whole stage of this mode, the anode roots and cathode roots
of 1.2 m/s. The full stroke was 8 mm. almost kept stationary, whereas the columns were instable,
A high-speed CCD video camera was arranged outside whose size and the appearance were changing continually. The
the observation window on the wall of demountable vacuum duration of multicolumn arc mode is shorter than the other
chamber to record the arc behavior. It has an exposure time two modes below. After that, the multicolumn extinguished
of 2 µs and 9216 frames/s. The test current was measured by and the arc transitioned to diffuse mode, but the anode area
Rogowski coil, and the arc voltage was measured by a high- still had a glow for a while.
voltage probe. Both of the data were recorded by a digital During multicolumn arc mode, moderate fluctuations
oscillograph and could be copied to computer for analysis. (with peak–peak values of 10–40 V) appeared on the
The trigger signals of the main circuit breaker, the operating arc voltage. And the mean value of the arc voltage is
mechanism of the demountable vacuum chamber, and the CCD between 35 and 60 V. Especially when the columns in this
video camera are all send out by a time sequential control mode appeared as jet columns, the fluctuations were always
device. The sequence was adjusted so that the opening of higher. The low fluctuation stage during moderate fluctuations
the contact is about 2 ms late than the close of main circuit in Fig. 3(b) corresponds to t9 when the constricted mul-
breaker, thus drawn vacuum arc was ignited. That is to say, all ticolumn suddenly changed into diffused multicolumn and
the data in our experiment are taken for the contacts opening contracted again to jet columns at t10 , with the reappearance
at the same place on the ac half wave. of moderate fluctuations.
In order to compare the experiment data, the arcing time 2) Single Stationary Jet Mode: For type I TMF contacts, at
was controlled (around 9 ms) so that all the data are taken for larger peak current (generally a little larger than the current
the contacts opening at the same place on the ac half wave. of multicolumn arc mode), the single stationary jet mode
Three types of spiral-type TMF contacts with material of occurred. Whereas for types II and III contacts, only single
CuCr50 were used in the experiment. The diameter of contacts case of single stationary jet mode could be found. Fig. 5 shows
is 46, 40, and 40 mm separately. The structures of these three the single stationary jet mode happened for type II contacts.
contacts are shown in Fig. 2. They are denoted by types I–III. It could be seen that a very large columnar arc formed after
the initial arc, which slowly moved for about 3.8 ms. After
III. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
that, the column began to shrink, and a stationary jet formed
A. Arc Instability Mode and Characteristics at t4 . It can be seen that the jet transitioned into a relatively
According to the results observed in the experiment, we diffuse column arc at t5 , but turned back into anode jet at t6 .
summarized the arc instability modes during high-current The appearance of single stationary jet is similar to the
vacuum arc with TMF contacts into the following categories. anode plasma jet between butt contacts in [2]. During the

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FENG et al.: EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF HIGH-CURRENT VACUUM ARC INSTABILITY MODES UNDER TMF 4163

Fig. 4. Appearance of two-column arc modes. (a) Ipeak = 13.40 kA for

type I contacts. (b) Ipeak = 14.60 kA for type I contacts.

Fig. 5. (a) Arc appearance and (b) arc voltage and current waveform with
Ipeak = 10.80 kA for type II contacts.

However, sometimes the single stationary jet mode is just

Fig. 3. (a) Arc appearance and (b) arc voltage and current waveform with a transition mode, which occurred temporarily before single
Ipeak = 12.20 kA for type I contacts. moving jet mode.
During single stationary jet mode, medium fluctuations
(with peak–peak values of 40–60 V) appeared on the arc
stage, the anode and cathode roots almost keep stationary, voltage. And the mean value of the arc voltage is between
whereas the arc between the contacts is constantly changing. 50 and 60 V. However, when the plasma jet transitioned into
The duration of single station jet as mode is usually between a rather diffuse column arc like t5 in Fig. 5(a), significant
1.1 and 1.4 ms, and subsequently transitions to diffuse arc. decrease in fluctuations will occur at the arc voltage.

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4164 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 43, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2015

Fig. 7. Arc appearance with Ipeak = 19.00 kA for type I contacts.

arc ignition, a very large bright columnar arc formed, which

became constricted at t2 especially at the middle plane of the
column. At t3 , the arc transformed into single moving jet mode
and became to rotate in Amperian direction in the gap.
Compared with the single stationary jet mode, the arc roots
in single moving jet mode are not motionless, but moving
together with the arc in Amperian direction. The fastest
instantaneous speed of the rotation in single moving arc mode
is between 290 and 440 m/s. Besides, both the jet and arc
roots are very luminous.
The appearance of jet between the contacts during single
moving jet mode is very unstable. Sometimes anode jet and
cathode would separate from each other, and a dark space
would form between the jets [t8 and t12 in Fig. 6(a)].
The duration of single moving arc mode is about 1.9–3 ms.
In the later stage of this mode, the high concentrated lumi-
nous jet in the gap extinguished, whereas the anode and
cathode roots would still keep bright and move in Amperian
direction. After that, the concentrated cathode spots would
suddenly spread to the whole cathode surface, the anode
root extinguished, and the arc suddenly changed into diffuse
mode. Sometimes even after the arc has changed into diffuse
mode, it would transition to jet mode again at one frame and
extinguished at the next frame.
A special single moving jet mode sometimes could be
observed. Compared with the other cases, the speed is much
higher, and the arc would move from one side to the other
side in the gap just between two continuous frames, the speed
could reach at least 430 m/s, as shown in Fig. 7.
High fluctuations would always occur during single moving
jet mode with peak–peak values of 40–80 V. The mean value
of the arc voltage is about 65–80 V. But when the arc suddenly
Fig. 6. (a) Arc appearance and (b) arc voltage and current waveform with changed into relatively diffuse columnar arc during the mode,
Ipeak = 18.40 kA for type I contacts. very low value would occur at the arc voltage.
4) Some Special Unstable Arcing Mode: Besides the three
3) Single Moving Jet Mode: At larger peak current, single main arc instability modes introduced above, some special
moving jet mode will occur. A typical single moving jet mode arcing modes were observed in our experiment. Sometimes
for type I contacts is shown in Fig. 6. As can be seen, after the luminous arc root would move to the edge of the contacts,

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FENG et al.: EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF HIGH-CURRENT VACUUM ARC INSTABILITY MODES UNDER TMF 4165

TABLE I
S UMMARY OF A RC I NSTABILITY M ODES IN THE E XPERIMENT W ITH T HREE K INDS
OF S PIRAL -T YPE TMF C ONTACTS . Ipeak I S B ETWEEN 7 AND 23 kA

have relatively large diameter because the trailing front of

the arc sometimes anchored at one slot whereas the leading
front expanded in Amperian direction, and it would usually
transition to multicolumn arc mode. At larger currents, the
Fig. 8. Intense spray outside the gap with Ipeak = 21.20 kA for type III
contacts.
MPAI mode prevails and the combined column would have
large diameter and keep motionless, which would suddenly
contract when the gap reached a certain value. Then it would
transition to single stationary jet mode or single moving
jet mode.

Fig. 9. Dark wedge penetrated the column from the right side B. Summary and Comparison of Different Arc
with Ipeak = 16.60 kA for type III contacts. Instability Modes
The characteristics concerning about three main arc insta-
and the arc would spray outside the gap, as shown in Fig. 8. bility modes are summarized in Table I. Each type of the
Medium fluctuations of arc voltage would occur. After the contacts was taken about 15 shots up to the maximum current
intense jet stage, the arc would keep stationary on the contact values. During all the test shots, multicolumn arc mode
and directly transition to diffuse mode, or begin to move in was observed 19 times, and single stationary jet mode was
Amperian direction and changed to single moving jet mode. observed 18 times, whereas single moving jet mode was
As shown in Fig. 9, when the arc transitioned from columnar observed 13 times. It should be noted that during one shot,
arc with fairly large diameter to single moving jet mode, a several instability modes could occur. Sometimes multicol-
very large dark wedge penetrated the column from the right umn arc mode and single stationary jet mode occurred only
side, which lasted for about 0.5 ms, and moderate fluctuations temporarily during the other instability modes. It can be seen
occurred (within 25 V). Then both the anode and cathode roots that, for the same contact structure, as the peak current Ipeak
related to the dark area extinguished and a single moving increases, the instability mode in the arcing process would
jet appeared at the left. This is quite similar to the wedge transition from multicolumn arc mode to single stationary
instability described in [1], but more intense. jet mode, and then to the single moving jet mode.
It should be pointed out that, in some cases, several kinds Compared with multicolumn arc mode and single stationary
of arc instability modes might occur in one arcing process. jet mode, the single moving jet mode is a very intensely
For example, the multicolumn arc mode might develop into instable mode. For any contact structure in our experiment,
single moving jet mode, and during the single moving jet the mean value of arc voltage during single moving jet mode
mode, stationary jet or multicolumn arc might also occur for is always high, and the fluctuations are much higher than the
one moment. other two modes. Besides, it can be observed that generally
Feng et al. [10] investigated the arc ignition modes under the duration of single moving jet mode is longer than the other
TMF, and they summarized single-point arc ignition (SPAI) two modes.
mode and multiple-point arc ignition (MPAI) mode. We also The characteristics of arc instability modes also differ
found that the diameter of combined column for MPAI mode between three different types of TMF contacts. For example,
would generally be larger than that for SPAI mode. it can be seen from Table I that each arc instability mode with
In this paper, we found in the experiment that, at relatively type I TMF contacts generally has both the largest mean value
small currents, even arc with SPAI mode would sometimes and fluctuations of the arc voltage. Moreover, the probability

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4166 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 43, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2015

of occurrence of each instability modes is different. In our In general, at least two of these transition cycles could be
experiment, single stationary jet mode is more likely to occur observed during one single moving jet mode. These periodical
than the other two modes for type III contacts. transitions from moving jet to diffuse column arc, and from
It is noteworthy that although the instantaneous current high fluctuation to low fluctuation on the arc voltage, could
related to the occurrence of single moving jet mode is much attribute to the spiral structure of these TMF contacts to some
higher than the other two modes, but the current value at degree.
the end of the mode is only a little higher than the other
two modes. B. Inclination of Arc in the Single Moving Jet Mode
It could be seen from the appearance of single moving
IV. D ISCUSSION jet mode that, during the rotation of the jet, especially in
A. Periodical Transition Between Plasma Jet and Relatively the course of the motion over slits, the arc jet is neither
Diffuse Arc During Single Moving Jet Mode perpendicular to the contacts nor bent from the middle part
of the arc, but inclined in Amperian direction from the anode
We have mentioned in Section III-A that, during the single
root. This inclination of arc was also observed similarly in
moving jet mode, the transition between plasma jet and
the arc appearance in [14]. If we only consider the Ampere
relatively diffuse columnar arc often occurred. For example,
force of the arc column, the arc appearance should bend from
in Fig. 6(a), the plasma jet at the right slot at t3 turned into
the central arc in Amperian direction, and the cathode and
columnar arc in the next frame at t4 . It is worth noting that
anode roots should be dragged behind and passively follow
the trailing front of the columnar arc at t4 stayed at the right
the motion of arc column. This contradiction shows that, when
slot where the plasma jet existed before, whereas the leading
analyzing the behavior and movement of arc, it is inadequate
front expanded in Amperian direction. This phenomenon could
to only consider the force on the arc column. We must take
often be found during the transition in single moving jet
the influence of the arc root on arc motion into consideration
mode. Thus, a possible reason to explain the transition between
at the same time.
plasma jet and columnar arc might be the influence of the slot
Dullni et al. [7] and Dullni [15] have preliminarily consid-
to the arc motion. When the plasma jet travelled near the slot,
ered the effect of heat process on the surface of the spiral-type
the trailing front of the arc would tend to slow down or even
contacts during the arc motion. By assuming the necessary
stay at the edge of the slot. Meanwhile, the leading front of
condition of the arc motion to be heating the contact surface
the arc continued to expand in Amperian direction, thus the
under the arc root to its boiling point, he calculated the upper
relatively diffuse columnar arc formed temporarily. It is only
bound speed of the arc movement. Delachaux et al. [16]
after the trailing front leaving the edge of the slot, that the
further analyzed the vacuum arc movement under TMF by
arc will constrict again and plasma jet will reform. However,
means of magnetohydrodynamics. They simulated the arc
during multicolumn arc mode and single stationary jet mode,
motion between 2-D parallel rail electrodes under external
sometimes the similar transition also occurred, which could
TMF and considered the influence of anode sheath and heat
not be explained by the same way above.
transfer of the electrode. They found that, under TMF and with
During the single moving jet mode with high fluctuations
high current, the Lorentz forces and pressure gradients on the
and high mean value of the arc voltage, the transition of the arc
arc column will make the arc bend in the direction of motion.
into rather diffuse column arc is often accompanied by a steep
The ion flux will preheat the next arc attachment zone which
decrease in the arc voltage. References [2], [4], [11]–[13] have
is favor for the motion of the arc roots. They also found in
shown that the rise of the mean value and the occurrence of the
their simulation that the motion of the arc over a slit is also
fluctuation in arc voltage are related to the ion starvation in the
the result of the arc bend and preheating process. When the
anode region. After the anode becomes active in arcing, once
arc is moving over the slot, the arc is bent, and the ion flux
the ion flux leaving the anode produced by anode material
preheat the other side of the slit, and new attachment will be
is large enough to hinder sufficient cathode ion flux from
hot enough to generate and the arc will jump over.
reaching the anode, a net negatively charged electron sheath
The inclination of arc in the single moving jet mode we
will form near the anode, and thus the arc voltage increases.
observed could be explained by arc bend, preheating, and
During the single moving jet mode, the anode was so active
jumping process, and the inclination might means that the arc
and the plasma was so contracted in a very small cross-
is in the process of jump over a slit.
sectional area that the ion starvation will be created, causing
an intense increase in the arc voltage. When the arc suddenly
changed into diffuse column arc, the heat flux density into C. Influence of Instability Mode on Breaking Capacity
the anode steeply decreased, therefore, the particles evaporated We observed three main kinds of vacuum arc instability
from the anode decrease. On the other hand, the increase in the modes under TMF contacts in our experiment: 1) multicolumn
cross-sectional area of the arc weakens the prevention of anode arc mode; 2) single stationary jet mode; and 3) single moving
ion flux to the ion flux coming from the cathode. Therefore, jet mode. The reason of the formation of these instability
the ion starvation in anode region is moderated and the arc modes is not clear yet. Especially for the multicolumn arc
voltage decreases. However, once the arc column constricts mode with long time of motionlessness, which to the best
again and plasma jet formed, the ion starvation will reoccur of our knowledge is observed for the first time, no satisfied
and high-voltage fluctuations will appear again. explanations could be found.

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FENG et al.: EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF HIGH-CURRENT VACUUM ARC INSTABILITY MODES UNDER TMF 4167

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jet mode, the periodical transition between plasma jet and D. Feng was born in Shannxi, China, in 1990.
relatively diffuse columnar arc often occurs. Different from He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineer-
ing from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China,
experiment with fixed gap distance or butt contacts, the slot in 2012, where he is currently pursuing the
structures of TMF contact and the drawn arc have influence Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering.
on the arc modes.
The occurrences of these three arc instability modes are
usually accompanied with the increase in mean value and
the occurrence of high fluctuation on the arc voltage. The
duration of the single moving jet is the longest and the mean
value and the fluctuation on the arc voltage are the highest
among three arc instability modes. The high arc voltage and
fluctuations indicate high arc energy, which will cause severe S. Xiu was born in Lingyuan, Liaoning, China,
in 1967. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
contact erosion and have bad influence on the current inter- from the Heibei Institute of Technology, Tianjin,
ruption after current zero. Further investigation is needed for China, in 1990 and 1993, respectively, and the
the arc instability modes. Experimental study and simulation Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, in 1998.
analysis should combine together to investigate the formation He is currently a Professor with the State Key
condition for different instability modes, energy distribution on Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power
the contact surfaces, and the influence of contact structure on Equipment, Department of Electrical Engineering,
Xi’an Jiaotong University. His current research
the instability modes to improve breaking capacity of vacuum interests include vacuum switchgear, vacuum arc
interrupter with TMF contacts. and its theory, and contact materials.

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4168 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 43, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2015

G. Liu was born in Sichuan, China, in 1992. Y. Zhang was born in Shannxi, China, in 1975.
He received the B.S. degree in electrical engi- She graduated from the Shannxi University of
neering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Technology, Xi’an, China, in 1995.
China, in 2013, where he is currently pursuing the She was a Technologist with Shaanxi Baoguang
M.S. degree in electrical engineering. Vacuum Electric Device Company, Ltd., Baoji,
China, from 1995 to 2003, where she has been a
Designer with the Technical Department since 2003.

Y. Wang was born in Gansu, China, in 1990.

He received the B.S. degree in electrical engi-
neering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an,
China, in 2014, where he is currently pursuing the
master’s degree with the Department of Electrical
Engineering.

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