STUDY OFA HIGH POWER HOLLOW CATHODEWITH STABLE AND LONG LIFETIME

Young Wook ChoiKorea Electrotechnology Research Institute,

Changwon 641-600, Korea

A hollow cathode which has extremely stable dischargecharacteristics has been developed. This is composed of thetwo separated lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6) in the tube as theelectron emitter. The way of design is very useful for stabledischarge of hollow cathode. The hollow cathode is capableof producing 30 kW ofpower continuously with long lifetime.Because the generated plasma beam with the hightemperature (5000 - 10000 °C) from the hollow cathodepasses through the center of the intermediate electrode, thecenter part of the intermediate electrode is designed with thehigh temperature material of tungsten and the suitablestructure of the water cooling. The combinations of thehollow cathode and the intermediate electrode are practicallyuseful for the ion plating plasma source.

1-4244-0914-4/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE.