Vacuum-tight electrical feedthrough
AssigneeInficon GmbH
InventorsStefan Kaiser, Bernhard Andreaus
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A vacuum pressure sensor includes a vacuum-tight electrical feedthrough. The feedthrough has an electrically insulating insulator element with a through-opening, having a first boundary surface adjacent to the through-opening and a second boundary surface also adjacent to the through-opening and opposite to the first boundary surface, and an electrically conductive conductor element which extends through the through-opening and which is connected to the insulator element in a vacuum-tight manner along a circumferential line of the conductor element. The insulator element is transmissive to electromagnetic radiation in an optical wavelength range and the first boundary surface and/or the second boundary surface is formed as a curved surface.
Claims14
A vacuum-tight electrical feedthrough, comprising
- an electrically insulating insulator element having a through-opening, having a first boundary surface adjacent to the through-opening, and having a second boundary surface also adjacent to the through-opening and opposite to the first boundary surface;
- and
- an electrically conductive conductor element which extends through the through-opening and which is connected in a vacuum-tight manner to the insulator element along a circumferential line of the conductor element,
- wherein the insulator element is transmissive to electromagnetic radiation in an optical wavelength range,
- wherein the first and/or the second boundary surface is formed as a curved surface, in particular as a convex or concave surface,
- wherein the conductor element has a rod-shaped design having a first rod end projecting further beyond the first boundary surface than a second rod end that projects beyond the second boundary surface, and
- wherein the insulator element forms an imaging lens which images at least a first object point in a region between the first boundary surface and the first rod end onto a first image point that is further from the first boundary surface than the second rod end.
A method for measuring a radiation intensity of electromagnetic radiation in an optical wavelength range, wherein the method comprises:
- providing a vacuum apparatus having a vacuum-tight electrical feedthrough, wherein the vacuum-tight electrical feedthrough comprises:
- an electrically insulating insulator element having a through-opening, having a first boundary surface adjacent to the through-opening, and having a second boundary surface also adjacent to the through-opening and opposite to the first boundary surface;
- and
- an electrically conductive conductor element which extends through the through-opening and which is connected in a vacuum-tight manner to the insulator element along a circumferential line of the conductor element;
- supplying electrical energy through the conductor element into a vacuum region of the vacuum apparatus to ignite and maintain a plasma in the vacuum region;
- and
- measuring the radiation intensity of electromagnetic radiation emitted from the plasma by an optical sensor,
- wherein the insulator element is transmissive to electromagnetic radiation in an optical wavelength range, the first and/or the second boundary surface is formed as a curved surface, in particular as a convex or concave surface, and the electromagnetic radiation radiates from the plasma through the insulator element onto the optical sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.