Negative ion-based beam injector

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10398016-B2
Application number	US-201815906999-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2018
Priority date	Mar 8, 2013
Publication date	Aug 27, 2019
Grant date	Aug 27, 2019

Abstract

A negative ion-based beam injector comprising a negative ion source and an accelerator. The ions produced by the ion source are pre-accelerated before injection into a high energy accelerator by an electrostatic multi-aperture grid pre-accelerator, which is used to extract ion beams from the plasma and accelerate to some fraction of the required beam energy. The beam from the ion source passes through a pair of deflecting magnets, which enable the beam to shift off axis before entering the high energy accelerator. The negative ion-based beam injector can be combined with a neutralizer to produce about a 5 MW neutral beam with energy of about 0.50 to 1.0 MeV. After acceleration to full energy, the beam enters the neutralizer where it is partially converted into a neutral beam. The remaining ion species are separated by a magnet and directed into electrostatic energy converters. The neutral beam passes through a gate valve and enters a plasma chamber.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A negative ion-based beam injector comprises
an ion source configured to produce a negative ion beam,
an accelerator spaced apart from the ion source, and
a transition zone interposing the ion source and the accelerator, the transition zone comprises a low energy beam transport line, wherein the low energy beam transport line includes bending magnets that deflect the beam orthogonally to the beam's direction of motion and focus the beam onto the axis of the accelerator.

2. The injector of claim 1 , wherein the ion source includes a plasma container and plasma drivers.

3. The injector of claim 2 , wherein internal walls of the plasma container are configured to maintain elevated temperatures of 150-200° C.

4. The injector of claim 1 , wherein the ion source includes a pre-accelerator.

5. The injector of claim 4 , wherein the pre-accelerator comprises an electrostatic grid having a plurality of electrodes, wherein each of the plurality of electrodes having a plurality of apertures.

6. The injector of claim 5 , further comprising a distributing manifold for directly supplying cesium on the electrostatic grid of the pre-accelerator.

7. The injector of claim 5 , further comprising a pumping system to pump gas out from a pre-acceleration gap.

8. The injector of claim 5 , wherein at least one of the plurality of electrodes is positively biased to pre-accelerate negative ions in the negative ion beam.

9. The injector of claim 5 , wherein the plurality of apertures are configured for focusing and passing negative ions to form the negative ion beam.

10. The injector of claim 4 , wherein the pre-accelerator includes external magnets to deflect co-extracted electrons in an ion extraction and pre-acceleration region.

11. The injector of claim 4 , further comprising a pumping system to pump gas out from a pre-acceleration gap.

12. The injector of claim 1 , further comprising a neutralizer interconnected to the accelerator.

13. A negative ion-based beam injector comprises
an ion source configured to produce a negative ion beam, the ion source including a pre-accelerator having an electrostatic grid,
an accelerator spaced apart from the pre-accelerator, and
a distributing manifold for directly supplying cesium on the electrostatic grid of the pre-accelerator.

14. The injector of claim 13 , further comprising a transition zone interposing the ion source and the accelerator.

15. The injector of claim 14 , wherein the transition zone comprises a low energy beam transport line.

16. The injector of claim 15 , wherein the low energy beam transport line includes cesium traps.

17. The injector of claim 15 , wherein the low energy beam transport line includes bending magnets that deflect the beam orthogonally to the beam's direction of motion and focus the beam onto the axis of the accelerator.

18. The injector of claim 14 , wherein the ion source includes a plasma container and plasma drivers.

19. The injector of claim 18 , wherein internal walls of the plasma container are configured to maintain elevated temperatures of 150-200° C.

20. The injector of claim 13 , wherein the pre-accelerator includes external magnets to deflect co-extracted electrons in an ion extraction and pre-acceleration region.

21. The injector of claim 13 , further comprising a neutralizer interconnected to the accelerator.

22. A negative ion-based beam injector comprises
an ion source configured to produce a negative ion beam, the ion source including a pre-accelerator having external magnets to deflect co-extracted electrons in an ion extraction and pre-acceleration region, and
an accelerator spaced apart from the pre-accelerator.

23. The injector of claim 22 , further comprising a neutralizer interconnected to the accelerator.

Assignees

• Tae Tech Inc

Inventors

• Belchenko Yuri I
• Burdakov Alexander V
• Davydenko Vladimir I
• Dimov Gennady I
• Ivanov Alexandr A
• Kobets Valeery V
• Smirnov Artem N
• Binderbauer Michl W
• Sevier Donald L
• Richardson Terence E

Classifications

• H05H3/02 Primary

  Molecular or atomic-beam generation, e.g. resonant beam generation · CPC title

• G21K1/00

  Arrangements for handling particles or ionising radiation, e.g. focusing or moderating · CPC title