Electrical Discharge Machining Application to the Development of mm-wave Accelerating Structures

167 Electrical Discharge Machining Application to the Development of mm-wave Accelerating Structures--Ron Witherspoon, Inc., 430 Industrial Street, Campbell, CA 95008-4110; (408) 370-6620 Mr. Ronald Witherspoon, Principal Investigator Dr. Steven Schwartzkopf, Business Official DOE Grant No. DE-FG03-97ER82470 Amount: $74,000 High energy physics research faces a serious challenge: how to obtain the higher accelerator energies necessary to conduct leading-edge experiments, while at the same time maintaining reasonable project costs. Classical accelerator technology is based on the use of metal structures to accelerate the subatomic particles which are driven with the energy supplied by radio frequency waves. In order to extend metal structures to higher gradients, leading to high energies, it is necessary to fabricate smaller accelerating structures with features in the millimeter size range. Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) is one of the most cost-effective methods of fabricating such structures. This project addresses development of the modifications required to EDM technology to enable accurate and reliable fabrication of accelerating structures in the millimeter size range. Successful development of these structures would decrease the size and cost of new accelerators. In Phase I, manufacturing techniques will be modified and a series of test units and a prototype millimeter-sized accelerating structure will be built. Both the test units and the prototype will be evaluated for fabrication accuracy, repeatability, and finish quality of the machined surfaces. In addition, they will be functionally tested to asses their operational capabilities. The Phase II work will focus on applying the Phase I results to the design, development, and operational testing of more advanced accelerator structures. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The successful development of millimeter-sized accelerating structures would not only vastly decrease the size and cost of a new generation of accelerators for high energy physics research, but would also lead to significant commercial opportunities. Potential commercial opportunities include a compact synchrotron light source and a compact proton or ion accelerator for cancer therapy, as well as the fabrication of miniaturized structures for various applications in the communications industry.