MICROTRON: High Quality Electron Beam Generator

Photon Production Laboratory has developed a high performance electron beam generator, MICROTRON, for Non Destructive Testing (NDT) of heavy structures. It features high beam current, light weight, low beam emittance and low energy distribution.

We recommend MICROTRON for a millimeter spatial resolution NDT, and MIRRORCLE-CV1 or MIRRORCLE-CV4 for higher spatial resolution NDT.

X-ray NDT of heavy structures, such as bridges, engines, buildings, sea shipping containers, chemical plants, and airport security, are all practical objects for MICROTRON. Other applications include corrosion examinations and welding inspection. MICROTRON is available in model sizes from 1 MeV to 20 MeV.





Test bench of 1 MeV High Quality Electron Beam Generator.

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MICROTRON Specifications

The type of MICROTRON	1 MeV model	4 MeV model	6 MeV model	10 MeV model	20 MeV model
Peak current(MAX)[mA]	500	200	150	100	100
Repetition rate (MAX)[pps]	1000	500	500	500	400
Average current [mA]	1	0.2	0.15	0.1	0.04
Output power of electron beam [W]	500	700	550	950	780
RF frequency [GHz]	2.45	2.856	2.45	2.856	2.45
RF Source	Multi-beam Klystron with small size and high power output
Total weight [kg] (Machine body)	300	400	600	600	1750
Radiation shielding	Option
Maximum power input [kVA]	30	30	50	50	62
Machine body size [cm] (Instead of salience)	W90xD80xH80	W90xD100xH80	W90xD120xH80	W90xD120xH80	W130xD150xH120
Control System	Automatic standby and operation. Remote monitoring and diagnosis. Emergency shutdown system.

Note:
* Due to continuous improvement, features, specifications and price are subject to change without notification.
* Japanese Export restrictions may apply depending on destination country.
* Electron beam output power higher than this table can be developed to meet customer requirements.

The MICROTRON, when used as a part of MIRRORCLE, has less than 1 % energy distribution for emitted electrons and allows for the realization sub millimeter size focus.

Typical field based mobile NDT platforms usually employ a LINAC. Consequently it is difficult to perform field based high resolution NDT due to large values for both LINAC focus size, and beam energy distribution (10%). On the other hand, MICROTRON has energy filtering function by accelerating and circulating electrons in constant magnet. Thus, MICROTRON has the desirable features:
(1) Practical sub millimeter X-ray focusing size.
(2) simple MICROTRON system is compact, low weight, and low in total cost.

A microtron type accelerator is a machine which rotates electrons in constant magnetic field, and accelerates electrons by an RF cavity electric field. Typical microtrons have an external electron gun. The Photon Production Laboratory MICROTRON, includes an internal electron gun in the RF cavity. This results in the 20 MeV MICROTRON having a 1.3m diameter, and the smaller 6 MeV an 10 MeV products both having a 0.65m diameter.

Inside the MICROTRON: showing electron path and internal RF cavity with electron gun.

The constant magnetic field environment of the microtron causes the electrons to circulate in ever larger orbits as they repeatedly pass through the RF cavity and are accelerated. Once the electrons reach the design level of the microtron, which of course corresponds to the largest orbit made by the electrons, they enter an extraction channel and leave the MICROTRON. Whereas a LINAC requires a pre-buncher and α-magnet for <1% electron energy distribution, the internal electron gun inside the RF cavity gives MICROTRON an inherently low electron energy distribution and does not require a pre-buncher.

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