High current density- long life cathodes

Creek Research, Inc. (CCR) is continuing development of higher current density cathodes using sinterered tungsten wire technology. The goal is cathodes capable of operating at 50 A/cm² or more for many thousands of hours. The sintered wire technology provides a simple process for fabricating reservoir cathodes with controlled porosity. Control of the porosity allows the designer to tailor the barium diffusion rate based on the current density requirement. This minimizes spurious barium diffusion and maximizes lifetime. An additional benefit is extremely uniform coverage of barium on the emitting surface, resulting in very low emission spread.