Nanocomposite Scandate Tungsten Powder for High Current Density and Long Life Thermionic Cathodes

Vacuum Process Engineering Inc. in collaboration with the UC Davis millimeter wave research group proposes to develop a large scale production process for nanocomposite scandate tungsten powder for advanced high current density and long life thermionic cathodes that have been previously demonstrated by UC Davis to be superior to the commercially available state-of-the-art. The produced cathodes demonstrated over 100 A/cm^2 loading at 1050C and over 40 A/cm^2 current loading at 850C with lifetime of over 20,000 hours. The team will develop a process that could be scaled up to 300-500 kg per year and confirm the high quality of the produced powder by providing detailed powder evaluation data as well as cathode testing results in diode type and Pierce gun type test vehicles for pulsed and continuous wave operation. Finally, the team will provide cathode samples for independent evaluation in real devices by CPI, L-3 Electron Devices, Teledyne MEC, SLAC, and JPL as attested to by collaboration endorsement letters. Semicon Associates will provide necessary support for packaging development and delivery to the customers. Dr. Randall German will provide powder metallurgy consulting services to the team for development of reliable and consistent large scale powder manufacturing process.