Drift tube with true hermetic seal
AssigneeOptical Systems, Inc.
InventorArash Ghorbani
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A drift tube construction includes a thin wall aluminum tube with a thin wire at its center attached to a terminal. The tube is plugged at both ends. The terminal is embedded at the center of the plug with material insulating it from Drift tube main body. The Drift tube assembly is sealed and filled with a gas mixture. A voltage is applied to the thin wire via the terminal. Current drift tubes employ plastic material to insulate the terminal from Drift tube main body and O-rings to provide a near hermetic seal.
Claims21
A hermetically sealed drift tube including an end plug with an insulated electrical feedthrough, comprising:
- a) a drift tube including approximately cylindrical inner and outer diameters along its length;
- b) an end plug including an outer diameter approximately equal to the inner diameter of the drift tube along its length, except for an approximately cylindrically symmetric first knife edge protruding radially outward from an otherwise approximately cylindrical outer plug surface and penetrating an inner surface of said drift tube to provide a hermetic seal between said end plug and said inner surface of said drift tube;
- c) an electrical feedthrough aperture defined in the end plug;
- d) an electrode outside said drift tube coupled via said electrical feedthrough aperture to a wire within said drift tube;
- e) an electrical feedthrough including a feedthrough jacket around said electrode disposed within said aperture in said end plug,
- f) a glass ring between said feedthrough jacket and material of said end plug defining said feedthrough aperture to insulate said electrode from said end plug and drift tube and to provide hermetic glass to metal seals with both said end plug and said feedthrough jacket;
- g) a double-knife edge ring, including a second knife edge penetrating said feedthrough jacket and a third knife edge penetrating said electrode to provide a hermetic seals with the feedthrough jacket and the electrode.
A hermetically sealed drift tube including an end plug with an insulated electrical feedthrough, comprising:
- a) a drift tube including approximately cylindrical inner and outer diameters along its length;
- b) an end plug including an outer diameter approximately equal to the inner diameter of the drift tube along its length;
- c) an electrical feedthrough aperture defined in the end plug;
- d) a glass ring having an outer surface approximately matching an inner surface of said aperture defined in said end plug, and an inner surface of said glass ring matching an outer surface of an electrical feedthrough.
A method of hermetically sealing a drift tube, comprising:
- (a) applying heat to an end plug having an electrical feedthrough aperture defined therein to expand the end plug material until the feedthrough aperture exhibits a second larger diameter at a second higher temperature than a first diameter at a first temperature;
- (b) inserting into said feedthrough aperture at said second diameter at said second temperature an electrical feedthrough including a feedthrough jacket surrounding an electrode and an insulating glass ring around said feedthrough jacket;
- c) removing the applied heat from the end plug which shrinks back to having said first diameter at said first temperature and compression sealing said end plug to an outer surface of said glass ring and said feedthrough jacket to an inner surface of said glass ring.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.