"STARFIRE" Sesselmann-Hendron Ion Source Published
Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 7:05 am
"STARFIRE" is the ion Source that John Hendron and I developed two years ago when we both needed a powerful ion source for our respective fusion ideas.
As John lives in Nothern Ireland and I live in Australia, the cooperation was purely by email and phone, but resulted in a good friendship between us.
After we had developed the basic design, which was based on an earlier prototype that John had made, I built 5 of the ion sources and sent two of them to John (see attached images).
We applied for a patent with WIPO, and it has just been published here;
WIPO PATENT SEARCH
The ion source is a low tech. filament based source, but very robust, and capable of a substantial ion current. Allthough we have successfully used the Starfire ion source on the STAR fusion reactor, we still need to make accurate measurements and collect data on the performace of the ion source on it's own.
Steven
Bee Research
Pict 1:
Ion source with KF25 to KF16 glass nipple
Pict 2:
The guts of the ion gun, with Macor machined ceramic sleeves, tungsten magnetron filament and tungsten ring.
Pict 3:
The tungsten filament from a magnetron fitted into the ceramic holder (note the gas entry point is through the annular support at the bottom of the spiral filament)
Pict 4:
The two ion sources that were shipped to Ireland.
As John lives in Nothern Ireland and I live in Australia, the cooperation was purely by email and phone, but resulted in a good friendship between us.
After we had developed the basic design, which was based on an earlier prototype that John had made, I built 5 of the ion sources and sent two of them to John (see attached images).
We applied for a patent with WIPO, and it has just been published here;
WIPO PATENT SEARCH
The ion source is a low tech. filament based source, but very robust, and capable of a substantial ion current. Allthough we have successfully used the Starfire ion source on the STAR fusion reactor, we still need to make accurate measurements and collect data on the performace of the ion source on it's own.
Steven
Bee Research
Pict 1:
Ion source with KF25 to KF16 glass nipple
Pict 2:
The guts of the ion gun, with Macor machined ceramic sleeves, tungsten magnetron filament and tungsten ring.
Pict 3:
The tungsten filament from a magnetron fitted into the ceramic holder (note the gas entry point is through the annular support at the bottom of the spiral filament)
Pict 4:
The two ion sources that were shipped to Ireland.