 |
Laboratory Facilities:
Charged Particle Calibration Facility
The charged particle calibration facility is contained within a hardwall Class 100,000 clean room. It includes a one-metre high vacuum chamber, a horizontal laminar flow bench, and a Helmholtz coil. The vacuum chamber is equipped with a low energy ion source (5 eV < Ei < 10 keV), a low energy electron source (10 eV < Ee < 1 keV), and a high resolution positioning table. The outer area of the clean room contains a second laminar flow bench for instrument assembly, and electronic assembly workstations. The Helmholtz coil is used to minimize the Earth's ambient magnetic field and is controlled via a feedback loop employing a 12-bit magnetometer. A minimum magnetic field environment (10 to the -3 of the Earth's intrinsic field) is critical for accurate characterization of particle detector response to very low energy charged particles ( < 1 eV), and for evaluation of instrument performance in deep space and planetary missions.
|
