Method of an apparatus for self-sustaining high vacuum in a high voltage environment
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsPeter Graneau, Michael B. Silevitch, Elizabeth E. Ames
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of and apparatus for self-sustaining high vacuum in a high voltage environment. The method and apparatus employ ion pumping; the apparatus can be an integral part of high voltage equipment and acts to maintain a high vacuum condition in such equipment.
Claims8
In combination with a device powered by a high voltage having a predetermined pulsating frequency and electrodes spaced by a gap within which an electric field may be established, an enclosure, and means sealing the enclosure in enclosing relation to the powered device for operation thereof under vacuum conditions, the improvement residing in vacuum-sustaining means for preventing degradation of the vacuum conditions in the enclosure, including means connecting the powered device to the electrodes for generating said electric field at said pulsating frequency to form an electron plasma, and magnetic means establishing a magnetic field in said gap for concentrating the electron plasma in the region of the electrodes, whereby a resulting ion-pumping effect maintains the vacuum conditions in the enclosure, said magnetic means comprising at least one permanent magnet enclosed within one of the electrodes adjacent to the gap.
Apparatus that comprises in combination a high voltage source, a vacuum-insulated ac electrical power device connected thereto, and means for generating a plasma in response to ac potential differences inherently established in the high voltage device, said means for generating the plasma comprising metallic electrode surfaces connected to the high voltage source, and a permanent magnet to concentrate the plasma in the region of said surfaces, said plasma producing an ion-pumping effect in conjunction with the metallic surfaces to sustain a vacuum within said device, said electrical power device being a lightning arrester comprising a plurality of electrodes disposed within the vacuum that is self-sustained by the ion-pumping effect of said plasma generated by the ac potential differences and contacts spaced from one another across a vacuum gap, at least one permanent magnet being disposed within at least one electrode of said plurality of electrodes, said at least one electrode serving to house said at least one magnet and serving, as well, as at least part of one of said metallic surfaces.
Apparatus that comprises, in combination:
- a high voltage ac source, a vacuum-insulated ac electrical power device connected thereto having a vacuum established therein, and means for generating a plasma in response to a glow discharge produced by ac potential differences inherently established in the high voltage device by said ac source, said means for generating the plasma comprising metallic electrode surfaces connected to the high voltage source and means concentrating a magnetic field about said electrode surfaces, said plasma producing an ion-pumping effect in conjunction with the metallic surfaces to sustain the vacuum within said device, said means for generating a plasma including a perment magnet, said electrical power apparatus being a vacuum insulated line which includes a hollow metallic electrode connected to the electrical conductor and disposed within the same vacuum space as said conductor, the permanent magnet being disposed within the hollow electrode, the vacuum space about the electrode constituting an active ion pumping region within said plasma which appears in said region and which is in the form of an ac glow discharge comprising ionized gas molecules in the region around the electrode, ionization being effected by the electric field in said region that occurs by virtue of said electric potential difference, said ion pump serving to self-sustain the vacuum within the transmission line.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.