Patent · US Expired

Detector and energy analyzer for energetic-hydrogen in beams and plasmas

US4782302A · kind A · utility

7Cited by
19References
5Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 31, 1986
Grant dateNov 1, 1988
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 31, 2006

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH10F30/295
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A detector for detecting energetic hydrogen ions and atoms ranging in energy from about 1 eV up to 1 keV in an evacuated environment includes a Schottky diode with a palladium or palladium-alloy gate metal applied to a silicondioxide layer on an n-silicon substrate. An array of the energetic-hydrogen detectors having a range of energy sensitivities form a plasma energy analyzer having a rapid response time and a sensitivity for measuring fluxes of energetic hydrogen. The detector is sensitive to hydrogen and its isotopes but is insensitive to non-hydrogenic particles. The array of energetic-hydrogen detectors can be formed on a single silicon chip, with thin-film layers of gold metal applied in various thicknesses to successive detectors in the array. The gold layers serve as particle energy-filters so that each detector is sensitive to a different range of hydrogen energies.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.