Abstract: A circuit for suppressing electrical arcing in an ion beam source or other plasma devices is provided. The arc suppression circuit of this invention detects current rises on ion beam source grids which cause arcing, disconnects the current flowing to the grid, and grounds the ion beam source to allow excess charge and current to be drained from the ion beam source rather than letting the charge and current arc on the grids of the ion beam source. A novel timing sequence is used for activating and deactivating the arc suppression circuitry to prevent shorting out of the power source. The arc suppressor circuits of this invention can be used on devices other than ion beam sources or plasma devices.