charlesdramey
The project mainly consists of a few smaller sub-projects:
-Deuterium Gas System
-RF Ion Source
-Electronic Controls
To ensure safe and stable operation of the accelerator sever electronically actuated valves and pumps will be used to control things such as gas flow into the ion source, and cooling fluid to the titanium target (primarily to reduce secondary emissions)
-Vacuum System
For a particle accelerator to work properly, vacuum levels on the same order as those in deep space much be achieved and maintained within a discrete chamber. This involves high precision machined flanges and several stages of vacuum pumps
Open Source Actuator
Weishan (Wesley) Yang
James Rowlands
Berry Phoebe
I built a vacuum system at Tektronix long ago that had an oil diffusion pump. If the cryogenic fluid that cools the pump ever gives out, oil is distributed throughout the vacuum system. What a mess to tear apart and clean! If you can find a multistage turbopump instead, you'll save yourself some grief. An oil diffusion pump will achieve 10^-9 torr, which is adequate for electron beams. It was for us at Tek on a project to test connectivity on hybrid circuit substrates.