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Procedia CIRP 95 (2020) 950–953
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

20th CIRP CONFERENCE ON ELECTRO PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL MACHINING

Developing a desk-top electron beam micro-machining system in the low-

pressure argon atmosphere
Ching-Hsiang Chien1,2, Aleksander Zawada3, Piotr Konarski3, Dong-Yea Sheu1,*
1
Graduate Institute of Manufacturing Technology, National Taipei University of Technology. 1, Sec. 3, Chung-Hsiao E. Rd., Taipei 10608 Taiwan

2
Chien’s Scientific Company, No. 2, Alley 12, Lane 990, Sec. 1, Fu-Hsing Rd., 33559 Tashi, Taoyuan, Taiwan

3
Lukasiewicz Research Network -Tele and Radio Research Institute, ul. Ratuszowa 11, 03-450 Warszawa, Poland

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +886-2-2771-2171 ex2078; fax: +886-2-2731-7193. E-mail address: dongya@ntut.edu.tw

Abstract

Electron beam machining (EBM) is a well-established technology for various industries. Conventional EBM systems use high-voltage for
electron beam generation. The EBM could be used for various processing such as drilling, welding and surface modification by converting
kinetic energy of electrons to thermal energy of the substrate. The core technology of EBM is electron beam generation. Traditionally,
magnetic lens systems are used to focus the electron beam and magnetic coils are used for beam deflection. However, most EBM systems
available on the market are designed for macro size work-piece machining purposes. These machines have large chambers and equipped with
high power supplies. Thus causes difficulty for micro-machining on small work-pieces. Therefore, in order to perform micro-machining for
tiny work-piece, a desk-top EBM system with a vacuum chamber smaller than 5 L was developed dedicated for micro machining processes. A
transformer of microwave oven is used as power supply. As an electron beam source by using concave cathode, which focuses the resulting
electron beam in argon ambient. Argon ambient also allows to avoid contamination during the process of machining. In order to obtain
excellent results of micro machining operation on smaller work-pieces, the electron beam behavior of the desk-top EBM was investigated in
this study. The experimental results show that dissimilar materials welding, small hole drilling and surface modification could be carried out by
this desk-top EBM. It is expected that the desk-top EBM can be used for commercial applications especially for micro machining in near future.
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the ISEM 2020
Keywords: Electron beam machining; Magnetic lens systems; Concave cathode; Dissimilar materials welding.

1. Introduction Denbnovetsky et al. [4]. In addition to concave cathodes,

Since the first electron beam machining (EBM) system was
constructed by Dr. Karl-Heinz Steigerwald in 1952 [1],
thermionic cathodes emitters are used for electron generation
purpose. This type electron sources have relatively short
lifetime due to back stream ion etching and cathode material
evaporation. In order to obtain a stable electron beam, it is
required to use special power supply systems. Already in 1907,
Marcello von Pirani used concave cathodes as electron source
to melt metals [2]. Concave cathodes were the subject of
interest of various authors, including Rocca et al. [3] and
hollow cathodes have also been studied and widely used for
electron beam generation, e.g. Koval et al. [5] and Oks et al.
[6].
Both hollow and concave cathodes have much longer
lifetime than pure metal thermionic cathodes traditionally used
in EBM. Cold cathodes do not burn out, and ion erosion has a
little effect on their electron emission efficiency. Hollow
cathodes and concave cathodes do not require complicated
power supply. The electron beam emission regulation is
possible by changing the accelerating voltage or by tuning the
pressure of the working gas. The electron beam of concave

2212-8271 © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the ISEM 2020
10.1016/j.procir.2020.02.276

This is a resupply of March 2023 as the template used in the publication of the original article contained errors. The content of the article has remained unaffected.
 Ching-Hsiang Chien et al. / Procedia CIRP 95 (2020) 950–953
cathode is focused mainly due to the appropriate shape of the
cathode surface and also due to the neutralization of the space
charge (so-called ionic focusing).
In traditional EBM devices with hot cathodes, intensity of
the electron beam is tuned by changing the Wehnelt electrode
potential. The beam is focused and moved by using magnetic
lenses and deflection coils. The set of all electrodes forms an
electron gun that requires several supply voltages, which
makes the power supply system complicated. In addition,
traditional electron guns require a good vacuum ambient of
the order of 10-5 mbar, which requires the use of an expensive
vacuum pumping systems. Finally the conventional EBM
systems are equipped with high power suppliers. For example:
the smallest supply used in a commercial electron beam
welder is of 2 kW [7]. Some commercial power supplies do
not allow operation with less than a few hundred Watts, which
is too much for small work-pieces. Therefore, conventional
EBM system is not only expensive but also has significant
limitations for small work-piece machining. Tests performed
with small workpiece elements by using Lukasiewicz ITR
institute conventional EBM welding system have shown that
such systems are not suitable for this type application.
M. Fukao et al. [8] and Amir H. Sari et al. [9] studied
solutions of simple electron gun and concave cold cathode gun
by obstructed discharge. A. Zawada and P. Konarski built a
compact EBM system with concave cathode as an electron
source by using transformer taken from microwave oven [10].
However, some parameters are still not clear for practical
applications. In this study, a simple low-cost desktop EBM
was developed for micro parts welding and surface
modifications. Not only the characteristics of welding
conditions but also parameters such as gas pressure, power
voltage and focusing spot were also investigated. The low-cost
desktop EBM is expected to have more applications on micro
machining in the future.
2. Electron beam source design and system configuration
2.1. The electron beam source design
The electron beam source is an aluminum rod of 18 mm
diameter with 20 mm height. There are two surface designs.
One is concave surface of 15 mm radius with 13 mm off-set
and a 3 mm cavity in the middle. The other is a 3 mm cavity
in the middle with 118o drilling angle hole at 13 mm diameter.
(a) Drilled cathode (b) Concave cathode
Fig. 1. Cathodes of electron gun: sketches and pictures
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951
Figure 1 shows sketches and photos for the two cathodes.
Their ceramic shields are moved up to show the details of
cathodes. Focusing of the electron beam is performed by the
curvature of the aluminum cathode surface [8] and drilling
angle surface. The electrode is installed in a heat-resistant
glass tube and sealed with O-ring for vacuum tight. The
cathode is covered with a ceramic tube during operation. A
transformer of maximum voltage output of 3.38 kV, taken
from microwave oven, is used for the power supply.
2.2. System configuration
The simple desk-top EBM is assembled with a vacuum
chamber made of stainless-steel and covered with an 8 mm
thick glass plate. Rotary vane vacuum pump was used for
pumping. The full range vacuum gauge and float flowmeter
were mounted on the chamber for vacuum measurement and
argon flow control. The 1050 aluminum material was used for
electron beam source (EBS) generator, since the aluminum
has a high secondary emission coefficient [5]. The details of
EBS are shown in figure.1. In order to avoid chemical
reaction between residual gases and the work-piece, argon
was applied as working gas. The argon flows into the vacuum
chamber from a gas cylinder and the flow rate is controlled by
pressure regulator and floating flowmeter. At the same time,
gas is pumped out through the vacuum channel by rotary
vacuum pump as shown in Figure 2. This arrangement
confirms that the welding process is undertaken in an inert gas
flow to ensure the welding quality.
Fig. 2. A simple experimental desktop EBM system
2.3. The electric power supply
A typical transformer of microwave ovens was used as a
high voltage (HV) source to supply the cathode. This HV is
doubled and smoothed by using a voltage double rectifier,
which uses a HV diode and a capacitor of 1F. The output
voltage can be smoothly regulated with a potentiometer
mounted on the full voltage regulator to adjust output source
voltage approximately 3.38 kV. Figure 3 shows the
dependence of the HV output voltage without load on the AC
full voltage regulator setting. A 350 Ohm, 100 W resistor was
connected in series between the cathode and the power supply
in order to restrain the maximum current. A 30 Ohm resistor
was used for the beam current detecting measurement. Figure
4 shows the electronic circuit and EBM system diagram.
 952 Ching-Hsiang Chien et al. / Procedia CIRP 95 (2020) 950–953
Compared with the conventional EBM electric power, the
transformer taken from microwave oven can only provide low
energy in this study. Therefore, the desk-top EB system can
be used for such purposes as micro parts welding and surface
micro-structure modification of low melting point materials.
Fig. 3. The HV output of transformer due to adjustment of AC full voltage
regulator.
Fig. 4. Electronic circuit diagram of the supply and EBM system.
3. Experimental results
3.1 General characteristics of the cathode
Figure 5 shows the relationship of cathode voltage and the
residual gas pressure in the vacuum chamber.
Fig. 5. Cathode voltage versus pressure of residual gases in vacuum chamber.
The gap between the cathode and anode was approximately
97mm and the working pressure was adjustable from 0.05
Torr to 0.09 Torr to eliminate the adverse arc discharge,
which happens when the working pressure is higher than 0.11
Torr. The stable glow discharge was obtained at a working
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pressure range from 0.05 Torr to 0.09 Torr. The focusing
point of the discharge was located 8.15 mm to 19.2 mm from
the cathode surface. Observing from the viewport, the cathode
dark space and negative column of discharge is extended
when the working pressure is decreasing as well as when the
cathode supply voltage is increasing. The symptom can be
considered as the discharge works under the conditions
corresponding to the left-hand branch of Paschen curve [11].
When using of full power, the transformer maximum
output value measured at 0.054 Torr pressure of the cathode
reaches -2780V. According to Ohm’s law, a beam current of
the system is around 5.71 mA.
The adjustment of the electron beam current is possible by
tuning the cathode voltage as well as by selecting the proper
working gas pressure. For discharge voltages below 3 kV, a
precise adjustment of working gas pressure is necessary for
beam current tuning [8]. The ultimate pressure of the desktop
EBM pumping system is 0.05 Torr. Therefore, we use stable
argon flow to the working chamber up to a pressure of 0.081
Torr. Under these conditions, the glow discharge is not fully
stable, and thus the beam current varies from 0 to 45 mA for
different cathode voltages. The discharge takes place within
abnormal glow regime, on the left branch of Paschen curve,
close to its minimum. This branch of the curve is generally
more sensitive to gas pressure variation, due to the steep slope
of the curve. In fact, singular breakdowns, which are
occurring, change pressure in the chamber dynamically.
Therefore, it is difficult to obtain a quantitative estimation and
reproducibility of the results for this dynamic system.
3.2 Beam focusing test of cathodes
In order to generate the high energy density, the concave
surface cathode was used for plasma electron beam focusing
purpose. By using the concave cathode curvature, it is
possible to focus the plasma beam spot for machining and
welding [6]. In our system, the target is a grounded anode.
304 stainless steel (SS) plates placed at several different gap
distances (20mm, 25mm and 60mm) from the cathode were
used as targets. After initial testing, it reveals that the distance
gap of 25 mm between the workpiece and the cathode has an
excellent beam focusing spot.
The SS plate was hold and fixed on the distance with
respect to the cathode then the chamber was pumped down to
0.05 Torr. Argon was fed into the chamber when the pressure
reached optimal value of 0.08 Torr. The focusing spot of the
electron beam on the SS plate could be observed clearly and
this plate melts when power is increasing. Figure 6 shows
photos of the two cathodes with different shape surfaces and
also schematic of assumed straight electron beam trajectories.
Under such assumption cathode of figure 6(b) has a better
focus point than that of figure 6(a). Contrary to assumption,
the photos show that the cathode with 118o drilling angle
surface seems to have a better focusing beam than the
concave surface. It could be considered that the workpiece is
out of the focusing spot when it works at the same distance
between the cathode and substrate in case of the two different
cathodes. However, such phenomena need to be proved
further.
 Ching-Hsiang Chien et al. / Procedia CIRP 95 (2020) 950–953
(a) Drilled cathode (b) Concave cathode
Fig. 6. Photos of beam focusing and beam lines sketches of both cathodes
Figure 7 shows the photos of focusing spot testing results
for SS plates. Figure 7(a) shows that focusing spots obtained
by using concave surface cathode are about 3 mm in diameter.
However, the focus spot size is approximately 1 mm in
diameter with the 118 ゜ drilling angle surface cathode as
shown in figure 7(b). Although the size seems to be too large
comparing with commercial EBM system, it is available for
micro-parts welding and surface modification.
(a) concave surface cathode (b) 118 drilling angle surface cathode
o
Fig. 7. View of focus test results with different cathode
3.3 Applications of EBM
The desk-top EB process shows the possibility for small
parts drilling and dissimilar materials welding. It is also
possible for high thermal conductivity material likes copper
wire, which was melted to form a ball as shown in figure 8(e).
Figure 8 (a) shows the images photos of drilling SS plates.
Figure 8(b) shows the silicon wafer drilling. One edge of this
wafer was broken due to the heat conduction during process.
The results of SS wire and plate welding are shown in figure
8(c) and figure 8(d).
Fig. 8. The photos of welding and drilling with simple desktop EBM of
various materials.
Fig. 9. Surface modification of SS plate by using low-cost EB. a) prior and b)
after EB treatment
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953
Figure 9 exhibits SEM photos of surface modification for
SS plate by using simple desk-top EBM. It is quite clear that
the electron beam melted surface and re-solidification
occurred to form a new surface.
4. Conclusion
A simple desk-top EBM system was developed for micro
welding and micro machining in this study. The low-cost
desktop EBM uses concave cathode electron source and a
transformer taken from a typical microwave oven. The results
show that the high-voltage output of transformer is
proportional to the input power. Electron beam focusing and
its current depend on working gas pressure in the vacuum
chamber. The cathode with 118o angle surface has a good
focusing of electron beam at 25 mm distance. The desktop
EBM shows the possibility of micro welding and micro
machining for the materials such as stainless steel, copper,
aluminum and silicon. Besides the power limitation and beam
focusing problem, the desk-top EB process is available for
micro parts welding and machining, which is shown in this
study. It is necessary to develop a high power EB machine for
wide applications in the future.
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