Vacuum controlled switches (KVU) are designed for switching capacitor pulse power systems with an operating voltage of 0.5 to 100 kV and a current of 10 to 400 kA. The switch allows to form a pulse voltage across the load with a delay of no more than 2 μs relative to the optical control pulse, and the rate of current rise in the load up to 10 kA / μs, is made on a modern element base with the use of high-current vacuum controlled spark gaps, high-speed optical decoupling elements for control pulses MOSFET and IGBT transistors.