Vacuum Pump Power Supply with Controller Integrated Circuit

60768 Present technology vacuum pump power supplies do not provide the features needed for the Next Linear Collider (NLC). Most are located some distance from the pumps themselves, requiring high voltage distribution cables that can break down electrically due to radiation induced damage and cause fires. Those power supplies that do mount on pumps do not have serial control or adequately processed current reporting. This project will develop a modular vacuum ion pump power supply with long-mean-time-between-failures. The power supply will use radiation hard parts and will mount on the pump connector, eliminating high voltage cables. It will be light weight, be serially controlled, report log current, and be sufficiently powerful to sustain vacuum. Phase I designed and breadboarded an interim module using a commercial off-the shelf microcontroller instead of the ASIC-based design (application specific integrated circuit), but with many of the radiation hard parts to be used with the ASIC. Phase II will test the Interim Module, and the radiation hard ASIC design will be modeled for functionality using methods proven by the interim module. Prototype ceramic boards will be manufactured, loaded, radiation tested, and field tested for the NLC. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The product should eliminate high voltage cables in medical and high energy research accelerators and other devices with high vacuum systems where serial control and reporting of the log of ion current is useful. The mixed-mode integrated circuit also might be used for other necessary radiation hard NLC tunnel applications.