electron beam components

VON ARDENNE electron beam guns, high-voltage power supplies and beam guidance systems are used as key components in a great variety of vacuum furnaces and vacuum coaters.

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Overview

Applications

Components

electron beam guns

VON ARDENNE electron beam guns generate an axial symmetric homocentric electron beam. By means of an electro-magnetic lens system, the beam is passed through narrow, water-cooled flow resistors. Due to the separate evacuation of both cathode chamber and intermediate chamber, the pressure decoupling to the process chamber can be maintained for a reliable beam generation. For beam power control, all electron beam guns are equipped with a VarioCathode in order to adjust the distance between cathode and anode at a fixed acceleration voltage and cathode emission temperature. Acceleration voltages up to 60 kV provide for excellent focusability even with high electron beam power and a for very good energy density when the electron beam passes the vapor and plasma clouds. In addition, our electron beam guns guarantee X-ray containment at reasonable costs. The magnetic deflection system in the gun both allows for static and precise, highly dynamic beam deflection across the process area and thus for a flexible distribution of the beam power.

high-voltage power supplies

High-voltage power supplies generate the voltages for the cathode system and the acceleration voltage for the beam electrons. Beam power control, the detection and suppression of arcs and an uncompromising safety management are other significant functions provided. There are further characteristics of our high-voltage power supplies worth mentioning:

High reliability due to ample safety systems for overvoltage and EMI protection
High-voltage signals directly measured on high-voltage potential and data transmission via optical link
Customized transformer insulation: oil (mineral or silicone), dry resin
Customized cooling: oil-to-water heat exchanger, air cooling

High-voltage power supplies are available as single, double or multiple supply units for one or more electron beam guns. Depending on flash-arc requirements, mains frequency and mid-frequency technologies are both offered in order to provide fast arc handling.

beam guidance systems

These PC-controlled systems generate freely programmable deflection patterns, control the lens currents and monitor the gun’s internal focusing status of the electron beam. The main features of our beam guidance systems are:

User-friendly graphical operator interface

Deflection pattern administration and control

Library of predefined patterns

Easy generation of user deflection patterns with text files or based on spreadsheet functionalities

Programmable automatic variation of the deflection sequence

Operator panels with joysticks for easy handling and industrial applications

Signal processor output for real-time beam deflection

Data exchange interface

Various power amplifiers allow for selecting the most cost-efficient solution depending on the required deflection frequencies and angles.

vacuum systems

The vacuum system of the electron beam gun enables the separate evacuation of the electron beam cathode chamber and intermediate chamber. The use of turbo molecular pumps is preferred but also oil diffusion pumps or other pumps can be used. The dimensioning of the system depends on the pressure of the process chamber needed to maintain the technological process. The gun's electron beam vacuum system includes vacuum gauges and a bleed valve which is necessary to maintain a certain intermediate chamber pressure for optimum beam focusing.