Effect of filament heating current on electron beam of directly heated strip-type electron gun

Abstract

The method of Electron Beam-Physical Vapour Deposition (EB-PVD) for handling large substrates is well established in the metallurgical industry, where sweeping axisymmetric electron guns or multiple pencil guns are routinely used to cover a large target area. The non-uniformity in current density in those methods can be overcome, to a large extent, by using the strip-type electron gun. In this paper, we propose to use an AC-heated strip-type electron gun to cover large target areas. The magnetic field generated by the alternating filament current oscillates the beam in a direction parallel to the filament length, thereby eliminating the need for applying an external electric or magnetic field for sweeping the beam. The non-uniformity in the current density within the strip electron beam, arising due to finite length of the filament, is reduced by the use of dummy filaments on both ends of the active filament. These results are supported by electron trajectory simulations.