Beam Position Monitors

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Faraday Cup

BNL

Cu Chambers

Aluminum UHV Loadlock Chamber

Denton Vacuum

This chamber for Denton’s Explorer Deposition System saves 90 min. per cycle with semi-automatic feeding that keeps the main chamber at high vacuum while material is replenished using  the new subsystem. The main chamber remains at vacuum, the finished wafer is extracted, a loadlock valve is closed, and the loadlock is brought to normal pressure. The wafer is then replaced, the system pumped down, and the wafer shuttled into the process chamber. Aluminum delivers low hydrogen, speedy pump down, maneuverability, and even bake out.

Bending Magnet Chamber

Fermilab

Our customers at Fermilab needed a series of vacuum chambers that would enable the introduction of electrons to the antiproton beam and the extraction of the electrons from the beam after cooling.

In electron cooling, beams of electrons and antiprotons circulate together at the same speed. The “colder” electrons interact with the “hotter” antiprotons and cool the beam of antiprotons in the same way that hot gas is cooled when it is mixed with cold gas.

Atlas designed and manufactured a series of X and Y-shaped aluminum bending magnet vacuum chambers for an electron cooling system, which cools relativistic antiprotons, in two halves machined from thick plates
of aluminum.

The aluminum material allowed for a homogenous magnetic environment and the precise control of the electron beams.

Fermilab was the first lab to demonstrate e-cooling at high energies, operating the electron beam at 4.3 MeV.

Foil Window Flange

Large Midwestern Research University

This electron optics application required a very thin titanium window. Because brazing posed a risk of the part failing due to force that brazing would exert upon it (along with an expensive replacement cost), Atlas developed a low cost replaceable and extremely thin (.002”) titanium UHV window trapped between a standard knife edge flange. This provides our customer with, not only a successful solution, but also a product that is low Z and beryllium free.

Bimetal ATCR Fitting

NASA

The Atlas ATCR fitting provides the solution that delivers liquids and gases to an assembly of cryopanels that join together to form a thermally controlled and uniform test area for the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Center. Aluminum extrusion is welded to the cryopanels in a serpentine pattern which ultimately connects to the stainless steel delivery lines. The Atlas ATCR fittings provide a compatible, demountable transition from the aluminum lines to their stainless steel counterparts.

Titanium Chamber

Laser Chamber

Scarlet

Bimetal Flanges

NSLS ll

The medium-energy electron storage ring (3 billion electron-volts) is made up of over 200 long (and a few short) precision machined, extruded aluminum chambers. Each chamber utilizes multiple Atlas bimetal flanges of various sizes, approx. 1500 total, to connect the chambers that comprise the ring. Aluminum was chosen “for the resistive wall impedance for the short bunch electron beam,” says Vacuum Group Leader, Dick Hseuh. “Aluminum is much better than stainless”. In this case, aluminum ultimately wins over high performing copper due to low cost.

Emissivac

NIST

Chamber and Neutron Window

Washington University in St. Louis

Researchers at the Spallation Neutron Source on the NOMAD (Nanoscale-Ordered Materials Diffractometer) beam line are studying the atomic structures of metallic liquids. The NESL, Neutron ElectroStatic Levitation facility,  is home to an Atlas aluminum vacuum chamber with an aluminum neutron window. The window is neutron transparent allowing scattered neutrons to be measured with minimal absorption and very low background noise which are two qualities deemed crucial for the studies.

Aluminum Optics Chambers with Breadboards

Max Born

These chambers are used for the generation and application of ultra short x-ray pulses via a frequency conversion process called high order harmonic generation. Reliable vacuum is essential because the pulses absorb air. The shape and breadboard allow the team to strategically and simultaneously position several optical elements for ease of filtering and focusing on the pulses. Aluminum says Dr. Bernd Schϋtte, “is cost effective and its low weight eases handling of chambers.” The low Young’s Modulus of aluminum also dampens vibration.

Water Cooled Chamber

Beneq

Beneq brought us a design challenge for a water-cooled aluminum chamber to be used with ALD equipment. The chamber, designed to alternately deposit gas and water vapor, showed cooling channels welded to the chamber’s exterior. The channels posed a cost and manufacturing challenge. Atlas modified the design and, ultimately, Atlas and Beneq agreed to cut and cap the channels directly into the exterior sides of the chamber. Beneq cited lower overall cost and specific process requirements as reasons for using aluminum.