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5163 |
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Tuesday, March 21, 2017, Hall Ford 2:30 PM Applications |
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Advances in micro electron beam welding |
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Michael Merkel / FOCUS GmbH, Germany Michael Mücke* / , Christian Otten/ FOCUS GmbH, Germany Matthias Escher/ FOCUS GmbH, Germany Matthias Paul/ FOCUS electronics GmbH, Germany Tobias Flohr/ FOCUS electronics GmbH, Germany Karsten Wrobel/ FOCUS electronics GmbH, Germany |
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Micro electron beam welding or other micro electron beam processes like drilling or surface modifica-tion represent a promising technique in different sectors like medical, sensor or information technolo-gy. Due to the typically small size of the workpieces various challenges for the EB technology are identi-fied as: The need for highly precise workpiece fixtures and manipulation, a µm range focussed elec-tron beam with an accurate beam deflection and focussing in the same range, fast and accurate beam current regulation for beam currents down to the 10µA range and a fast and low power secondary electron (SE) imaging to minimize the heat input in the workpiece before processing. In this paper we present the progress we made in the instrumentation that helps to overcome these challenges using the FOCUS Micro Electon Beam Welder (MEBW). An improved high voltage power supply enables fast power regulation in the ms range, pulsing with pulse lengths down to 1µs and stable beam currents down to 10µA. With a LaB6 single crystal cathode small spot sizes are possible that can be controlled by a fast deflection system and a digital electron optical image. Examples like the joining of thin Nitinol wires and drilling µm sized holes in Molybdenum sheets are shown. |