IFT Catalog

Sample of IFT Micromachined Product Line

Inertial Fusion Technologies

Typical Capsules

NIF Ignition Target

Cone and Shell Target

Titan Targets Microwire BacklightersAstrophysics Target and Results

Capsule Fill Tube Assembly

U & Au Cocktail Hohlraum NIF Cryo PartsBeryllium Shells

Foam Shells and Foam Fill Tube Target

Z-Symmetry Capsule Double Shell Target

Z, NIF – 2 mm

Omega – 1 mm

Nova – 0.5 mm

!

Precision Micromachined Components

Capsules – Glass, Polymer, Foam, Beryllium

NIF Capsules and Components

Fast Ignition and Specialized Targets

Inertial Fusion Targets and Components

Fill Tube Perturbation Capsule

Astroshock Target

IFT Catalog

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES FROM GENERAL ATOMICSINERTIAL FUSION TECHNOLOGIES

1. GENERAL INFORMATION

Abbas NikrooDirector, Inertial Fusion Technologies

[email protected](858) 455-2931

Dan GoodinDeputy Director, Inertial Fusion Technologies


http://www.ga.com/energy/ift

2. PRECISION MACHINED COMPONENTS

HOHLRAUMS•Electroplated gold

•Cryogenic Hohlraums•Geometrical variations (e.g., halfraums, diagnostic holes and patches)

FAST IGNITION TARGETS

Emilio GiraldezCenter for Precision Manufacturing


3. POLYMER, GLASS, BERYLLIUM, COMPOSITE AND MULTI-LAYERED CAPSULES

•Diagnostic layers•Diagnostic and Fuel Gases

Annette GreenwoodCenter for Direct Drive Capsule Production


Brian VermillionCenter for Indirect Drive Capsule Production


Kari MorenoBeryllium Coatings and Capsules


4. COATINGS FOR SPECIALIZED ICF TARGETS•Metallic and Organic Coatings

•Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition•Chemical Vapor Deposition

•Beryllium Coatings and Shells•Electroplating



IFT Catalog

5. CHEMISTRY AND FOAM FABRICATION

•TPX, Polystyrene, Divinyl Benzene, Resorcinol Formaldehyde (RF) and Carbonized RF Targets for Z•Doped Foams

•Foams with Embedded Objects

Diana [email protected]

(505) 845-7762

•RF Foam Flats and Capsules•Silica Aerogels

•Organic Foam Targets•Cast and Machined Foams

Jared HundCenter for Coatings, Polymer, and Foam Development


6. LASER MACHINING

•Specialized Target Forming and Laser Cutting•Fill Tube Fabrication and Joining

Andrew ForsmanCenter for Laser [email protected]

(858) 455-3196

7. METROLOGY AND CHARACTERIZATION DEVELOPMENT

•Precision X-Radiography•Quantitative X-Radiography for Composition and Metrology

•Spheremapper/Wallmapper•Development of Characterization Methods

Richard StephensCenter for Characterization Innovation and Development


Haibo [email protected]

(858) 455-4152

8. PRECISION TARGET ASSEMBLY

• NIF, OMEGA, OMEGA EP Z-Facility Assembly and Characterization



9. CRYO TARGET HANDLING

• Cryo Target System Design and Engineering

• D2 Test Systems• Target Insertion

• Robotic Assembly



Neil [email protected]

(858) 455-2019

IFT Catalog

10. INERTIAL FUSION ENERGY

•Power Plants, Reactor Design•Target Injection and Tracking Systems (Mechanical Systems Engineering, Optics)

•Mass-Production of Inertial Fusion Targets (Chemical Engineering, Process Development, Cryogenic, Process Control)•Cryogenic Target Handling Systems (Cryogenics, High Pressure Systems, Tritium Technology and Equipment, Mechanical Systems

Development, Vibration Analyses, Characterization Methods)



IFT Catalog

TABLE OF CONTENTS1. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF CAPABILITIES ............................................................ 1

2. PRECISION MACHINED COMPONENTS ................................................................................ 5Micromachining Capabilities .................................................................................................... 5Equipment ................................................................................................................................ 5Metrology ................................................................................................................................ 5Cylindrical Components .......................................................................................................... 5Planar Components ................................................................................................................ 6Patterned Surfaces .................................................................................................................. 6Targets for Astro-Physical Experiments .................................................................................. 6Product Line of Micromachined Components ........................................................................ 7Unique Micromachined Components ...................................................................................... 9

3. CAPSULES ................................................................................................................................ 11Polymer Capsules .................................................................................................................... 11

PAMS Shells ...................................................................................................................... 12GDP Shells ........................................................................................................................ 13

Glass Capsules ........................................................................................................................ 14Drop Tower ........................................................................................................................ 14Si-GDP Glass Shells ........................................................................................................ 15High Z Doping of Glass Shells .......................................................................................... 15

Beryllium, Foam, Polymide Shells .......................................................................................... 16Beryllium Shells ................................................................................................................ 16Foam Shells ...................................................................................................................... 17Polyimide Shells ................................................................................................................ 17

Specialty Shells and Targets .................................................................................................. 18Fast Ignition Capsules ...................................................................................................... 18Double Shell Targets ........................................................................................................ 18Hemi Shells ...................................................................................................................... 18Gas Fills and Half-Life Measurements .............................................................................. 18Nonpolymeric Coatings on Shells .................................................................................... 19

4. COATINGS FOR SPECIALIZED ICF TARGETS AND COMPONENTS .................................. 21Coating Capabilities ................................................................................................................ 21Equipment ................................................................................................................................ 21Multi-Layer “Cocktail” Coatings .............................................................................................. 22GA-Built Glow Discharge Polymer (GDP) Coating Systems .................................................. 23

5. CHEMISTRY AND FOAM FABRICATION ................................................................................ 25Polystyrene .............................................................................................................................. 26Resorcinol Formaldehyde (RF) Aerogel .................................................................................. 26Silica Aerogel .......................................................................................................................... 27Divinyl Benzene (DVB) ............................................................................................................ 28TPX .......................................................................................................................................... 28Composite Plastic/Foam Planar Targets ................................................................................ 29Polymer Films .......................................................................................................................... 30Microwire Backlighters ............................................................................................................ 30

IFT Catalog iii

iv IFT Catalog

6. LASER MACHINING .................................................................................................................. 31Laser Machining Capabilities .................................................................................................. 31

7. METROLOGY AND CHARACTERIZATION DEVELOPMENT .................................................. 33Geometry and Material Properties .......................................................................................... 33

Contact Radiography ........................................................................................................ 34Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) .......................................................................... 34X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) .............................................................................................. 34White-Light Interferometer ................................................................................................ 34Spheremapper .................................................................................................................. 35Whole Image White Light Interferometry (WYKO) ............................................................ 35Optical Microscopy ............................................................................................................ 35Automated Microscopy ...................................................................................................... 35Wallmapper (Transparent Capsules) ................................................................................ 36Absorption Edge Spectroscopy (Edge) ............................................................................ 36Precision Radiography ...................................................................................................... 36Phase Shifting Diffraction Interferometer (PSDI) .............................................................. 37Xradia Wallmapper (Transparent and Opaque Capsules) ................................................ 37FTIR Transmission Spectroscopy .................................................................................... 38Densitometry .................................................................................................................... 38Auger Spectroscopy .......................................................................................................... 38Scanning Electro Microscopy with EDX ............................................................................ 38Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) .................................................................................. 38

8. PRECISION TARGET ASSEMBLY ............................................................................................ 39GA-Built Dual Theta Assembly/Characterization Station ........................................................ 40

9. CRYO TARGET HANDLING ...................................................................................................... 41NIF Cryogenic Target System .................................................................................................. 42

10. INERTIAL FUSION ENERGY .................................................................................................. 45

IFT Catalog 1

1. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF CAPABILITIES

General Atomics has been providing targets, target systems, and target support services for the U.S. Department of Energy, Inertial Confinement Fusion Program since 1990. The General AtomicsInertial Fusion Technology (IFT) Team supplies thousands of targets and components each year forICF experiments. We also make custom equipment for target fabrication and characterization, andcryogenic target handling systems.

GA’s IFT team has a strong customer-orientation evidenced by its ISO9001:2000 Quality Managementcertification. GA Inertial Fusion Techologies’ first quality objective is on-time delivery, which it meets forover 4,000 components delivered each year. Timeliness is key for the GA IFT Team and its customers.

Our targets and components are produced by com binations of micromachining and chemicalprocesses such as electroplating and physicalvapor deposition. Dimen sions are controlled to 1 μmwith surface roughness to less than 2 nm RMS. Weproduce conven tional and specialized hohlraums,witness plates, sine-wave plates, Z central cans,NIF targets and components shock breakout plates,and other complicated ICF components. The partscan be coated with pure and doped CH materials,various metals, and insulators.

Polymer, glass, and beryllium microshells are currently the main types of capsules in the ICF programtoday. We can supply polymer shells ranging from full density to ultra-low density foams in diametersup to 5 mm and wall thick nesses from a few micrometers to several hundred micrometers. The shellwalls can consist of many layers that can be doped with a variety of elements. Permeability to variousgases can be controlled by fabricating capsules with coatings having low permeability. This allows usto produce capsules with many types of gas fills.

Similarly, we can supply glass shells at diameters over 2 mm filled with a variety of gases. The surfacefinish of our micro shell capsules is generally less than 5 nm RMS.

Cone andShell Fast

Ignition target.Fast Ignition target for Titan.

2 IFT Catalog

We can supply beryllium shells over a range ofdiameters from 440 μm diameter Nova-type capsulesto 2000 μm diameter NIF-type capsules. Wallthickness can vary from less than 5 μm to over 160 μm. Surface finish depends on the wallthickness. For a 5 μm thick beryllium shell, the typicalsurface roughness is less than 50 nm RMS. For athicker layer, mechanical polishing is available toreduce the surface roughness to very low levels (< 5 nm RMS). Beryllium shells can include dopantssuch as copper. Profiled doping has beendemonstrated.

We have the capability to make multi-element“cocktail” hohlraums. A typical multi-layered cocktailcoating targeting composition of 75 at. % depleteduranium and 25 at. % gold, for example, consists ofrepeated multi-layers of 30 nm depleted uranium and8.2 nm gold. The layers are repeated to obtain thefinal desired thickness. It is straightforward to altertargeted composition as well as layer thicknesses ona run-to-run basis. Several microns of gold aresputtered onto the cocktail coating to protect it fromoxidation.

Planar targets can include layers of polymers, foams,metals, oxides, salts, and other mate rials. Patternscan be imposed including sine waves of variousamplitudes and wavelengths, square waves, and two-dimensional sine waves. Planar targets are generallymounted on a frame.

A variety of foams can be fabricated fortargets with several types of polymershaving densities from 850 mg/cm3 to 3 mg/cm3, some with submicron cell sizes.The foams can be cast or machined intocustom shapes and may include anembedded capsule

Schematic of multi-layer plasticcapsule. Coating layers can be

doped with Si, Ge, Ti, Cl, Cu, or D.

0 50 100 150 200 250Wall Thickness (m)

Polymer possible

Polymer Achieved

Glass Shells

0

2

4Di

amet

er (m

m)

6

Range of capsules.

Side view radiograph R/Ffoam target with embed-

ded spheres.

University of Michigan, NLUF, SNRT drivedisk and resulting hydrodynamic instability.

OMEGA foam Astroshock target.Radiograph shows embedded

spheres.

IFT Catalog 3

We characterize key properties of the targets and components we deliver. When our characterizationis complete, we not only confirm that an item meets the specification, but that it has a pedigree withcertified measurements. A wide variety of standard characterization techniques are used includingmanual and automated optical micro scopy, SEM, EDXS, interferometry using WYKO, x-rayfluorescence, FTIR, densitometry, and contact radiography. Advanced characterization techniques wedeveloped and use for target metrology include custom White-Light Interferometry, Absorption EdgeSpecrtroscopy, Precision Radiography, Phase Shifting Diffraction Interferferometry (PSDI), AFMWallmapper and Spheremapper, and Xradia Wallmapper.

We also produce custom built or modified equipment used for target fabrication and target handling.These include glow discharge polymer (GDP) coating systems for CH and doped CH coating, thespheremapper/wallmapper for measuring the surface finish and wall thickness of capsules, and a dualtheta assembly/characterization station for targets that are fielded in spherical chamber, cryogenictarget systems.

Spheremapper/Wallmapper. Xradia Tomography System.

Edge Absorption Spectroscopy used to measure Au and U thicknesses in NIF cocktail hohlraum.

X-r

ay I

nten

sity

(au

)

4 IFT Catalog

IFT Catalog 5

2. PRECISION MACHINED COMPONENTSMICROMACHINING CAPABILITIES

The General Atomics IFT team can provide a varietyof high-precision micromachined components on aproduction or development basis.

We can supply millimeter and sub-millimeter sizedcomponents of different shapes micromachined froma variety of materials.

Components can be made to tolerances within ±1 μmand with a surface finish better than 10 nm RMS.

EQUIPMENT

GA has seven Precitech and two Moore diamond turning machines.

There is slow-tool servo and fast-tool servo capability on two of our diamond turning machines.

We have three 5-axis KERN micromill machines.

We have the capability to machine uranium and beryllium.

METROLOGYQuality control and certification are achieved with the use of:

• Z-Mike laser micrometers

• Nikon measuring systems

• WYKO surface profilers

• DekTak surface profilers

• Interference microscopes

• TENCOR profiler

• JEOL scanning microscope with EDAX

• Confocal microscope

• Dual Confocal microscope

CYLINDRICAL COMPONENTS

GA fabricates complicated cylindrical components in a number of materials with high precision.

GA produced a wide variety of hollow cylindrical gold components.

Hollow cylindrical components are made in three steps involvingmicromachining of a copper mandrel, gold electroplating the mandrel, andthen etching away the mandrel.

We produced cylindrical components with complex patterns, such as sinewave patterns, around the circumference of the cylinder.

Precision fit-up forSymmergy two-piece hohlraum.

Rugby hohlraum.

6 IFT Catalog

PLANAR COMPONENTS

GA fabricates complex planar components and foils with multiple layersfrom a variety of materials.

Plates have been fabricated ranging in size from a few millimeters to assmall as a few hundred microns square.

These plates measure in thickness from 5 to 300 μm and have beenconstructed of aluminum, copper, Kapton, polystyrene, polyimide, and GDP.

The variety of plates include flat plates, stepped plates, wedge plates, and plates with sine wavesmachined in them. Even patterns such as sin(x) sin(y), and more complex patterns, have beenmachined into plates.

Using PVD of different materials, bimetallic witness plates have been fabricated.

PATTERNED SURFACESPatterns can be machined into target surfaces using a precision single-point diamond turning lathe.Most requested patterns are sine waves, but complex patterns including sine waves with overtones,multiple patterns on the same target, and sin(x) sin(y) patterns can also be made.

TARGETS FOR ASTRO-PHYSICAL EXPERIMENTS

We have the capability to machine and assemble a variety of complex targets for astrophysicalexperiments. Some examples have been BlastWave, SNRT, and Astroshock targets for NLUFexperiments.

Fabricated SNRTpattern.

Measured SNRTpattern.

MicromachinedBlastWave target.

IFT Catalog 7

PRODUCT LINE OF MICROMACHINED COMPONENTS

8 IFT Catalog

PRODUCT LINE OF MICROMACHINED COMPONENTS (CONTINUED)

IFT Catalog 9

Epoxy hohlraum

Radiation mask

NIF light shield mold

ShockTiming cone and shell target

Gold halfraum

Gold cylinders with flanges

Sunburst hohlraum

Thin wall (1 μm) hohlraum

NIF TMP aluminum can

NIF diagnostic band

Saddle end sleeve

CH flange gold hohlraum

UNIQUE MICROMACHINED COMPONENTS

10 IFT Catalog

ICF Catalog 11

3. CAPSULES

The General Atomics IFT Team produces a variety of micro-shells for use as targets for various laser facilities around theworld. These include glass, polymer, foam, and berylliumshells.

POLYMER CAPSULES

Many of the polymer capsulesproduced for laser shots are madeusing the depolymerizable mandreltechnique. This is a three-step pro -cess as illustrated below. The start -ing mandrel is a poly(α-methyl -styrene) (PAMS) shell produced bymicro-encapsulation. The PAMSshells are then coated with GDP (orpolyi mide if desired), which isthermally stable at 300°C. When theGDP-overcoated PAMS compositeshell is heated to 300°C, the PAMS mandreldecom poses into a vapor and is permeated outof the GDP coating. The PAMS polymerdecomposes into its monomer form at 300°C.This leaves behind the GDP coating as the finalshell material. The process has the advantageof allowing fabrication of thin, thick, doped orundoped shells, as well as shells containing asandwiched doped layer placed virtuallyanywhere within the shell wall by simplyadjusting the coating. Various types of shellsproduced using this technique are presented.

12 ICF Catalog

PAMS Shells

PAMS shells are fabricatedusing the microencapsulationprocess. This technique usesthe immiscibility of oil andwater to initially produceliquid shells of polymermaterial dissolved in oil-likesolvent. Upon proper curingand drying, solid polymershells with excellent walluniformity (<5%) can bemade from ~200 μm to over5 mm in diameter.

While these shells are usuallyused as the starting mandrelfor GDP or polyimide shells,they can be used as thetarget material depending onthe application. For example, PAMS shells are currently used as the inner mandrel for Nova-type capsules.

PAMS shells can be made with very good wall uniformity, when the wall thickness is about 10%–20%of the diameter. The capability to produce thick-wall PAMS shells is not limited. Thicker shells can befabricated having acceptable wall uniformity with slightly less yield.

Scaling to a mass manufacturing process allows these shells to be available in large quantities.

K

K

W1/O/W2 emulsion stirred by propellerin a beaker for curing or polymerization

XY stage(for 3rd orifice)

1storifice

2ndorifice

3rdorifice

XYZ stage(for 1st orifice)

W2 O

W1

10–3

10–2

10–1

100

101

102

103

104

105

nm2

1 10 100 1000Mode Number

NIF standard

Avg PS in RED

X=>Excluded traces: path (1): O O O path (2): O O O path (3): O O O

PAMS020129-1-A1

RMS (2): 109 nm

RMS (3-10): 61 nm

RMS (11-50): 3 nm

RMS (51-100): 1 nm

RMS (101-1000): 2 nm

Avg smoothed with 5%

Typical PAMS shell power spectra.

Vials of mass-produced PAMS shells.

ICF Catalog 13

GDP Shells

Glow discharge polymer (GDP) capsulesare made by over-coating PAMS shells withGDP then pyrolyzing away the PAMSmandrel. GDP is a plasma polymer.Depending on the coating conditions andthe process gas(es) used, the GDPcoating, which is the eventual ablatormaterial, can be composed of variousmaterials which are CH based. The tablebelow lists the materials currentlydeposited by GA.

The materials listed can be depos ited invarious combinations to produce shellscontaining several different layers eachcontaining a different composition. Thesetargets have been used in a variety of ICFexperiments. Extensive examina tionof various combinations of materialshas indicated that the layers do notdelaminate from each other; hence,the shell wall is contiguous.

The surface finish of these coatingsis typically below 10 nm RMS for thetypes of materials listed in the table.

Material/Dopant at. % Range Comments

CH NA “Strong” CH available

CD NA “Strong” CD available

Si-CH Up to 6%

Ge-CH Up to 6%

Ti-CH Up to 6% Ti as TiO in layer

Cl-CH ~6% Only in outer layer

Ti-Cl-CH Up to 3% Ti, 3% Cl Only in outer layer

Cu-CH ~1%

SEM of GDP coating on shell.

14 ICF Catalog

GLASS CAPSULES

Glass capsules can be made usingtwo different techniques. The firstutilizes a heated drop tower, while thesecond involves a silicon-doped glowdischarge polymer (Si-GDP) coating.A range of diameters and thicknessescan be produced using eachtechnique. The details are givenhere.

Drop Tower

Drop tower glass shells are fabricated by dropping specially formulated frit through a high tempera -ture (up to 1650°C) ceramic tube several meters in length. Glass shells with different compo sitionsincluding pure SiO2 or glass doped with boron, calcium, sodium, rubidium, and potassium can bemanufac tured using this technique. These shells have good wall uniformity (<5%) for the smallerdiameter sizes (<600 μm). However, for larger sizes, the wall uniformity becomes progressivelyworse. In addition, shells larger than ~1300 μm in diameter cannot be produced using the currenttower. Shells made using the drop tower technique contain about 0.25 atm of residual gasesconsisting primarily of CO2, water vapor and air — some of which, like water vapor, can be removedby additional baking.

Large batches of shells (~100s) are produced quickly using this technique.

Diameter Range(μm)

Wall Thickness Range(μm)

100 – 300 0.5 – 30

300 – 600 1 – 20

600 – 900 2 – 10

900 – 1200 2 – 5

Glass drop tower. Fabricated glass shells.

~

ICF Catalog 15

Si-GDP Glass Shells

Si-GDP glass shells are fabricated by firstproducing a Si-GDP shell using the depolymeriz -able technique. The Si-GDP shell is then oxidizedin air, thereby converting the silicon into SiO2 andremoving the carbon and hydrogen in the shell byconversion to CO2 and water vapor. The resultingpure silica shell contains about 0.25 atm nitrogen,0.05 atm CO2, and trace amounts of CO and

argon. These capsules have excellent wall uniformity and power spectraover all size ranges.

In addition, we have developed the Si-GDP glass shell fabrication processto make shells containing Hi-Z diagnostic gases such as argon andkrypton.

High-Z Doping of Glass Shells

A new process for making High-Z doped glass shells is based on the Si-GDP-to-glass conversionmethod (Hoppe process) and allows for the manufacturing of large, thick and exceedingly uniformshells. Germanium (Ge) doped glass shells are made essentially by the same process as pure silicaglass shells except a Ge dopant is added during the GDP coating step.

Interferometric view of 440 x 35 μm Si-GDP shellindicating near-perfect wall

thickness uniformity.

Diameter Range(μm)

Wall Thickness Range(μm)

250 – 500 2 – 35

500 – 1000 1 – 20

1000 – 2000 5 – 20

Sinter

1 2 3

PAMS(polymers) M-GDP/PAMS M-GDP MO2

Where Metal (M) = Si or Ti Uniformcoating

Uniform glassshell

Ge-doped glass is made using the Si-GDP-to-glass process.

16 IFT Catalog

BERYLLIUM, FOAM, POLYIMIDE SHELLS

Beryllium Shells

GA can make beryllium shells over a range of outer diametersfrom a 440 μm diameter Nova-type capsule to 2000 μmdiameter NIF-type capsule. Wall thickness can vary from lessthan 5 μm to over 160 μm. Surface finish depends on the wallthickness. For a 5 μm beryllium shell, the typical surfaceroughness is less than 50 nm RMS. For a thicker layer,mechanical polishing is available to reduce the surfaceroughness to very low levels. Beryllium shells can includedopants such as Cu. Profiled doping has been demonstrated.

Beryllium shells are fabricated by magnetron sputtering ofberyllium targets under vacuum of ~1x10-6 Torr. GDP shellsproduced by plasma CVD are used as substrates. GDP shellsare placed in a rolling pan and agitated. Columnar structure iscommonly observed in the beryllium films. Beryllium coatingscharacterized by TEM show low void den sity and small voidsizes. The typical density of the Be coatings is ~94% of the bulkdensity under normal sputtering conditions.

Thick beryllium shells produced by magnetron sputtering gothrough mechanical polishing to meet NIF specifications forsurface smoothness. Polished beryllium shells show surfaceroughness <10 nm RMS. Copper-dopedberyllium shells are produced by co-sputteringberyllium and copper. An additional target inour vacuum chamber is copper. By adjustingthe copper target to substrate distance andsputtering power, different levels of copperand graded copper-doped beryllium shells areproduced.

Cross section of a beryllium shell.

Beryllium shells.

GA coater used for beryllium shell fabrication.

Polished beryllium shell surface power spectra.

10 μm

NIF beryllium capsulefill tube assembly

2 mm shell with 10 μmfill tube.

ICF Catalog 17

Foam Shells

Some of the high gain direct-drive ICF designsinvolve a foam shell with a conformalpermeation barrier seal coat. We can produceresorcinol formaldehyde (RF) foam shells inthe range of 50 to 200 mg/cc, approaching 5 mm in diameter with wall thicknesses of 50to 200 μm. These shells are produced in largebatches, approximately several thousand. Theshells are observed to have good walluniformity. Foam shells are typically coatedusing the GDP coating process. Coated shellsare gas retentive and can be filled withdeuterium for laser shots. RF foam shells canbe produced with small pores, less than 100 nm cell size which make the shellstransparent. They can also be produced withlarge pores, greater than 100 nm cell size, atthe expense of enhancing cryofilling.

Polyimide Shells

Polyimide, a polymer which contains nitrogen and oxygen in addition to CH, possesses exceptionalmechanical properties, thermal stability and chemical resistance. It also has a relatively high density(~1.4 g/cc) among polymers, which is of interest to ICF experimentalists.

The General Atomics IFT team has adapted the process developed at UR/LLE to vapor depositpolyimide films on flats and on shells. Our dedicated polyimide coater is capable of depositing filmsof various thicknesses from a few tenths of a micron to many microns. Batches of polyimide shells ofvarious diameters and thicknesses can be produced.

Polyimide coater.Fabricated polyimide shells.

As-fabricated batch of 1 mm RF shells.

1 mm high density RF foam fill tube capsule.

18 ICF Catalog

SPECIALTY SHELLS AND TARGETSFast Ignition Capsules. Fast ignition targets are a class of targets that our teamproduces. Gas retentive cone-mounted polymer shells can be routinely manufactured.These shells involve both our capsule fabrication and micromachining capabilities.Capsules ~1 mm in diameter are machined to produce a hole to accept the re-entrantcone. The glue joint between the shell and the cone is kept to a minimum. Thisprovides a strong permeation seal and allows gas fills up to 15 atm inside the shell.

Double Shell Targets. Stalk-mounted double shell targets havebeen manufactured for HEDP experiments. The inner shell may be glass or polymer.The outer shell is typically a polymer shell machined to allow mounting of the innershell. A gas permeation barrier has been placed on the outer shell to allow gas fillingof the void between the two shells.

Hemi Shells. Another class of capsule targets that combines micromachining andcapsule fabrication are hemispherical shells. The hemis are produced by making a batch of intactshells and then machining half of the shell away. This technique offers the advantage of massfabrication of hemi shells with a relatively brief micromachining step which can also be done on severalshells at once.

Gas Fills and Half-Life MeasurementsFrequently, capsules require gas fills. We accomplish this task via elevated temperature permeationin three custom engineered systems designed and built at GA. The primary system automaticallyoperates three separate fill lines and controls fill pressure from 0 to 10,000 psi using various pre-programmed fill profiles depending on capsule dimensions, material, and required fill pressure. Theother two systems allow for sub-atmospheric gas fills completed using manual operation in bothheated and room temperature modes. The gases that can be filled to capsules are limited only by thepermeability of the gas for the capsule materials combined with toxicity or corrosive properties of thegas. Examples of filled gasses are shown in the table below.

Once filled, we characterize not only the final fill pressure in the targets but also confirm the half-livesof the capsules to ensure that the target has the desired pressure needed at shot time. We haveestablished many techniques to accomplish these tasks utilizing various systems at GA. Thetechnique utilized depends on a number of factors including the atomic number of the fill gas, expectedhalf-life, quantity of gas and the material of the target. Primary methods include non-destructive

Gas Pressure Range Comments

Deuterium/hydrogen Up to 200 atm Standard lab request

Xe, Ar, Ne 0.05 up to several atmospheres “Standard” diagnostic gases

Deuterated methane 0.05 up to several atmospheres “Special” diagnostic gases

SF6

Assembled cryo targetwith doulbe hemi shell.

Machined hemi shell. Cryo target design with two hemis.

ICF Catalog 19

techniques such as x-ray fluorescence, mass spectrometry, white light interferometry, and mass lossover time measuring the rate of out-gassing. Secondary methods include destructive techniquesemploying statistical sampling. One process uses a system with a known volume combined with aprecision pressure gauge within which a capsule is burst. Another process is a technique thatmeasures the size of a resultant gas bubble when a target is punctured under glycerin.

Nonpolymeric Coatings on Shells

Our team has extensive metal coating capabili -ties as described in the coating section. Wehave extended these techniques to coating ICFcapsules.

The PVD systems we have available areroutinely used to coat shells with variousmetals, such as:

Au, Al, Bi, Pd, W, Cu

and non-polymeric insulators such as:

SiO2, B

Most coatings are performed on freely“bouncing” shells in a mechanically agitatedholder. An electromagnetic shaker mechanismprovides the proper agitation for the shells.Coatings on stalk-mounted shells can also becarried out.

Production gas fill station.

SEM of tungsten coating cross section.

20 IFT Catalog

IFT Catalog 21

4. COATINGS FOR SPECIALIZED ICF TARGETS AND COMPONENTS

COATING CAPABILITIES

GA provides a variety of coatings for special applications.

Capabilities for coatings on substrates of various shapesuniformly: flat, cylindrical, and spherical substrates usingappropriate agitation mechanisms as needed

Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of pureand doped CH materials:

• CH, Ge-CH, Ti-CH, Si-CH, CD, Cu-CD, …

PVD of various metals and insulators:

• Au, Al, Bi, Pd, W, Cu, Nd, Dy, …

• SiO2, B, …

The ability to sputter alloys of two or three metals.

Electroplating of various metals.

Parylene coating capability needed for certain ICF experiments.

Chemical vapor deposition of polyimide thin films.

EQUIPMENTWe have six PECVD coating systems capable of continuous operation.

We have four multi-gun sputter coating systems capable of running in dc and rf, and biased modes forPVD purposes. Each system is outfitted with ion sources for in-situ Ar ion cleaning.

Electron beam evaporation capability.

Several electroplating baths.

Parylene coater.

Polyimide coating system.

Line of sputter coaters.

Inside gold sputter coater.

22 IFT Catalog

MULTI-LAYER “COCKTAIL” COATINGS

A “cocktail” coater is currently being used for depleteduranium and/or gold deposition. The six-gun systemhas a typical base pressure in the low 10-8 Torr andoperates with an argon background pressure range of3 to 15x10-3 Torr. Six part holders sit opposite eachgun on a rotating arm which is indexed via computercontrol to have a part stationed in front of each gun fora given amount of time, thus determining thethickness of the given layer. The part holders sit at a45-deg angle to the sputter sources and rotateindividually for even coating over cylindricalmandrels. A 90 deg configuration is also available.The chamber sits in a chemical hood due to safetyconcerns associated with the use of depleteduranium.

The coatings are made onto acrylic mandrels that aremachined to the required cylindrical dimensions. A 100 nm protective inner layer of gold is deposited first,and then the mandrel is indexed back and forthbetween the DU and Au sputter sources to create themulti-layers. A typical multi-layered cocktail coatingtargeting composition of 75 at. % DU: 25 at. % Au, forexample, consists of repeated multi-layers of 30 nmDU and 8.2 nm Au. The layers are repeated to obtainthe final desired thickness. It is straightforward to altertargeted composition as well as layer thicknesses on arun-to-run basis. Several microns of gold are sputteredonto the cocktail coating to protect it from oxidationwhen the sample is moved from the coater to theelectroplating setup. For structural integrity, 20-30 μm of gold is then electroplated onto the sample,although different electroplated thicknesses can easily be targeted. A Levin precision lathe, dedicatedto machining parts coated with depleted uranium, is used to back-machine away the coating from themandrel. The acrylic mandrel is then leached away in acetone, leaving a freestanding cylinder. We cancoat multiple parts from one holder arm to produce up to five parts of equal uniformity per holder arm.

Depositions have also been made on silicon substrates for characterization purposes as well as ontocellulose acetate. The cellulose acetate is removed in acetone to leave a freestanding foil. Au, DU, andAu:DU multi-layer foils of thicknesses between 0.8 and 2 μm have been fabricated. To fabricate ahohlraum, 25 mm thick gold washers are coated with cocktail material in a separate run, which canthen be glued to the cylinders.

“Cocktail” coater.

Au : U cocktail hohlraum.

Fabrication steps for cocktail hohlraums.

IFT Catalog 23

GA-BUILT GLOW DISCHARGE POLYMER (GDP) COATING SYSTEMS

Specifications:• Coating composition: CH, CD, Ge-CH, Ti-CH, Si-CH, …

• Coating rate: <0.3 μm/h – 2 μm/h

• Surface finish: Typical Rq ~10-100 nm RMS

Rq as low as ~1 nm RMS (rate dependent)

• Coating area: >2 cm diam

• Foot print: 32 x 84 in.

• 110VAC or 220VAC operation

System Includes:

• RF plasma unit and power supply.

• Coating chamber (~5 in. diam).

• Gas and pressure control units.

• Agitation system (for non-flat targets).

• Timer for extended operation.

Description:

The GDP coating systems built at GA have been used for ICF target fabrication for nearly 20 years.Currently, there are nine GDP coating systems at GA which are operated virtually 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These GDP coaters are highly reliable as evidenced by their nearly continuousoperation. They have a long track record in producing nearly all of the spherical targets for ICFexperiments at a variety of laser and pulsed power facilities in the U.S., including Nova, OMEGA, Z,and NIF. GDP, which in its simplest form is pure hydrocarbon, is currently the main ablator materialfor ICF capsules. Roughness of GDP coatings can be made below 10 nm RMS for coatings as thickas 100 μm.

We have fabricated undoped GDP coatings with the depolymerizable mandrel technique, also exoticmultilayer targets have been made for a variety of important spherical ICF experiments. GDP is oneof the candidates for NIF ignition capsule material. In addition, cone-mounted doped and undopedGDP shells have been used for fast ignition targets.

The French ICF program acquired a GDP coater from GA in 2000. Their system was built andcommissioned at Valduc on schedule. The GDP coater at CEA has been functioning trouble-free andhas provided the means of fabricating spherical targets with the desired surface finish.

The GDP coater dimensions are approximately 32 in. wide and 84 in. long. The coater includes thecoating chamber, plasma head, an instrument rack with gas controllers, plasma power supplies, shellagitation power supplies and a control panel. Vacuum pumps are also supplied.

~

24 IFT Catalog

IFT Catalog 25

5. CHEMISTRY AND FOAM FABRICATION

GA produces a variety of foams used as stand-alone capsules, targets to prevent diagnostic holeclosure, and to support diagnostics or delicate capsules. Foams currently available are listed below.

All of the foams are produced from a solution. It is the capillary forces placed on the foam during theremoval of the solvent that determines the lowest possible density. To minimize the capillary forces,the foams are dried by vacuuming, freezing, or supercritical CO2.

To characterize, we have specialized equipment designed for the very low-density foams, including aconfocal interference microscope and radiography systems. The radiography system is able tocharacterize foam uniformity in pure CH foams down to 3 mg/cm3 density.

FoamDensityRange

CellSize Dopants

ChemicalComposition

ProductionIssues

HIPEPolystyrene

15 – 700mg/cm3

1 – 10μm

HalogensDeuterated

PhysicalDispersions

CHMolded or

machined to shapeVacuum dried

Resorcinol-Formaldehyde

Aerogel

20 – 850mg/cm3 nm

Chemicalmodification

Physicaldispersions

62 wt% C, 38 wt%O & H

Carbonized 93 wt%C

Molded to shapeSupercritical

dryingCarbonized is

machined

Silica Aerogel10 – 700mg/cm3 nm


Physicaldispersions

Si O2

Molded ormachined to shape

Supercriticaldrying

DivinylBenzene

15 – 200mg/cm3

1 – 4μm

Deuterated CHMolded to shape

Supercriticaldrying

TPX(Poly 4-methyl-

1-pentene)

3 – 250mg/cm3

1 – 15μm

PhysicaldispersionsEmbedded

objects

CH2Molded or

machined (higherdensities)

Radiograph of 1 mm foam capsule with fill tube.

Xradia detector chamber. Xradia image of foam target.

26 IFT Catalog

POLYSTYRENE

Polystyrene emulsion polymerization foam was developed jointly by LLNL and Los Alamos NationalLaboratory (LANL). We use this process and foam for targets and components. It has a water phaseand an oil phase, emulsion stabilized with a surfactant. The oil phase can be quite small — 10% orless of the volume. The water phase contains the radical initiator; the oil phase contains monomer,surfactant, and solvent to dilute. The emulsion is formed using a pneumatic syringe pump andexchanging the solution between two syringes. The monomer is then polymerized, the surfactantwashed out and the foam is dried. For larger volumes of foam, a high viscosity stirrer can be used.The advantages of polystyrene foam include its strong modulus and ease of doping. Its limitationsinclude its larger cell size and the requirement that each piece may have to be individually machined.

RESORCINOL FORMALDEHYDE (RF) AEROGEL

RF foam is produced by reacting resorcinol and formaldehyde. It is an aerogel, with nanometer scalecell size. It can be molded to shape and used as RF, or it can be heated to 1000ºC in an inertatmosphere where it becomes an almost pure carbon aerogel. Carbonized resorcinol formaldehyde(CRF) can be machined to shape.

FoamDensityRange

CellSize Dopants

ChemicalComposition

ProductionIssues

HIPEPolystyrene

15 – 700mg/cm3

1 – 10μm

HalogensDeuterated

PhysicalDispersions

CH

Molded ormachined to

shapeVacuum dried

Examples of machined polystyrene foam components.The sphere on the right is 5 mm in diameter.

FoamDensityRange

CellSize Dopants

ChemicalComposition

ProductionIssues

Resorcinol-Formaldehyde

Aerogel

20 – 850mg/cm3 nm


Physicaldispersions

62 wt% C, 38 wt%O & H

Carbonized 93 wt%C


dryingCarbonized is

machined

IFT Catalog 27

RF advantages are very small cell size and a well understood gelling mechanism (this allowsmicroencapsulation to produce shells). The limitations are (1) the density cannot be less than20 mg/cc, (2) it contains oxygen, and (3) super critical drying is required (a time-consuming step).

The advantages of CRF is very small cell size. CRF limitations are that it cannot be less dense than20 mg/cc and it requires extensive processing — super critical drying of RF plus carbonization.

SILICA AEROGEL

Silica aerogel was the first aerogel produced and hasmany unique characteristics. It has the nanometer cellsize of an aerogel (transparent) and is almost colorless.It can be machined or molded to shape. We haveproduced disks of silica aerogel and coated the diskswith metallic coatings. The advantages of silica aerogelare very small cell size and optical properties. Thelimitations are high atomic weight atoms (silica andoxygen) and the time and equipment requirements ofsuper critical drying.

Examples of RF and CRF foam. Thefoam on the left is an RF foam inwhich 70 μm diameter polystyrenebeads have been distributedthroughout. This foam was designedfor an EOS experiment and was tomodel the density distribution foundin heterogeneous nebulae in space.The foam on the right is a machinedCRF disk. Note the chip at thebottom. CRF foam is very brittle.

FoamDensityRange

CellSize Dopants

ChemicalComposition

ProductionIssues

SilicaAerogel

10 – 700mg/cm3 nm


Physicaldispersions

Si O2

Molded ormachined to

shapeSupercritical

drying

Typical silica aerogel sample used inassemblies having low density foams.

28 IFT Catalog

DIVINYL BENZENE (DVB)

Divinyl Benzene (DVB) is another foam formulation. It is a pure carbon and hydrogen foam systemcapable of production at densities down to 10 mg/cm3. It has been molded into cylinders andmicroencapsulated to produce spheres. It can be produced in a deuterated form. The advantages ofDVB are that of pure carbon and hydrogen and low density. The disadvantages are difficult to cast andcannot be machined. DVB capsules have been a reference target design for Inertial Fusion Energy.

TPX

Poly 4-methyl-1-pentene (TPX) foam has been used for a long time in high-energy experiments andis the current foam of choice at Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) for its Z-pinch experiments. Thefoam is produced by dissolving the polymer in a heated solvent/nonsolvent system. The solution isthen cooled, machined to shape and the solvent and nonsolvent sublimed. We modified this procedureto use only a solvent to dissolve the polymer. This produces a more uniform foam and allows the foamto be cast. Casting is less labor intensive than machining and permits precision placement ofembedded objects. We also doped TPX with elements such as molybdenum, gold and silica. Theadvantages of TPX include ease of manufacture and low densities. The disadvantages include largecell size and very soft modulus.

FoamDensityRange

CellSize Dopants

ChemicalComposition

ProductionIssues

DivinylBenzene

15 – 200mg/cm3

1 – 4μm Deuterated CH


drying

The SEM shows thefoam structure of a DVBfoam. The capsule onthe right has a 4 mmdiameter with a 300 μmwall. It is a prototype forthe IFE target design.

FoamDensityRange

CellSize Dopants

ChemicalComposition

ProductionIssues

TPX(Poly 4-

methyl-1-pentene)

3 – 250mg/cm3

1 – 15μm

PhysicaldispersionsEmbedded

objects

CH2

Molded ormachined (higher

densities)

IFT Catalog 29

Example of a Dynamic Hohlraum Target Foam. The conceptual drawing on the left shows the design asrequested. The foam in the center and the right on radiography show the target as fielded. The beryllium markersallow for tracking of the shock front in the foam.

Radiographs of foams with densities of 14 mg/cm3. The first two images contain capsules that are used inDynamic Holhraum experiments on Z. These experiments have reproducibly produced thermal-nuclear neutrons.The shaped foam was designed to modify the cylindrical pinch into a curved radiation field. The far rightradiograph shows a foam with a 300 nm thick metal foil embedded 2 mm into the foam. The foam also hasshaped ends that are fit into a washer for target assembly.

COMPOSITE PLASTIC/FOAM PLANAR TARGETS

GA produces a variety of planar targets and films for ICF and HEDP research. Uses for planar targetsinclude imprint studies, instability growth and quenching studies, equation-of-state measurements,driver calibration, target back lighters, and feed out studies. The targets usually have a polymer filmcomponent and often have machined or vapor-deposited metallic layers. GA planar targets areindividually crafted to precise customer requirements and characterized to meet a complete set ofspecifications.

We produced multilayer flats with perturbations where one of the layers is a low density foam. Anexample of a composite plastic/foam target with a rippled surface for tracking shocks in EOSexperiments is provided below.

Machined features of a rippled composite CH/foam target.

30 IFT Catalog

POLYMER FILMS

We manufacture high-quality smooth poly mersto use as compo nents inplanar targets. The mostcommonly used polymersare polystyrene andpolyimide. Our specialtyis casting polystyrene

and polyimide into defect-free films with better than 5 nm RMS roughness. Polystyrene films rangefrom 5 μm to over 100 μm in thickness while polyimide films are normally less than 15 μm in thicknessdown to 150 nm.

Most ICF/HEDP targets require pure polymers as components. If needed, we provide polymers withcontrolled impurities to change emission characteristics or density. We have routinely providedchlorine-doped polystyrene and silicon-doped polystyrene and can deliver films with other dopants aswell. Typical concentrations of dopants are between 2 and 6 at. %.

MICROWIRE BACKLIGHTERS

General Atomics developed processes to produce microwire targets as small as 5-10 μm in height andwidth on low-Z substrates (Al, CH). One process uses wet chemistry, while the other process usesheat bonding. The microwires produced include the metals Au, Ag, Dy, and may be extended to othermetals. The microwires are used as backlighters in ICF experiments.

Material Thickness ToleranceSurface(nm PV)

Polystyrene 5 – 100 μm 0.1 μm 5

Polyimide 150 nm – 50 μm 10% or 0.1μm 5

WYKO image of Au microwire made by wet chemical process.

SEM image of Au microwire made by the heat bonding process.

IFT Catalog 31

6. LASER MACHINING

LASER MACHINING CAPABILITIES

General Atomics developed unique laser machining capabilities through its world-leading laserexpertise, substantial internal investment, and by supporting ICF target fabrication. The LaserApplications Laboratory has several nanosecond lasers, a femtosecond laser, a vacuum-compatibleCNC micron-resolution motion control system, optical and electronic diagnostic equipment for laser-matter interaction studies, and process development, as well as an excimer-laser machining station.More importantly, what distinguishes Laser Applications Laboratory from other laser machining labs isits vast experience and in-depth expertise in the area of theoretical and experimental laser matterinteractions and plasma physics related to laser processing of materials. In addition, there isintegration of such expertise at GA with other key capabilities of metallurgy, metrology, anddiagnostics. Below are examples of unique, laser-machined materials produced by GA’s InertialFusion Technologies laser applications lab.

Enlargement of Dante sieve holes.Holes are 50 μm in diameter showing

excellent edge quality.

Dante sieve used in NIF diagnostics.Sample of array of 6000 precisely

spaced holes in tantalum, lasermachined using nanosecond lasers.

Free-standing spiral machined from tantalum oxideaerogel using 248 nm excimer laser. Diameter of

spiral samples is 2 mm.

32 IFT Catalog

Machined aerogel pyramid showing example of high percisiondepth control achieved using laser machining.

Laser-machined sine waves in CH-coated RF foam for Rayleigh Taylor instability experiments.

Example of high aspect ratiolaser-drilled counter bore hole

in beryllium shell.

(a) Schematic of laser-drilled plastic capsule with fill tube.(b) Final capsule with fill tube after laser machining and assembly.

50 μm

• 60 μm wavelength • 120 μm wavelength• 0.5 μm amplitude • 2 μm amplitude

IFT Catalog 33

Examples of Techniques:• Contact radiography (CR)• Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS)• X-ray Absorption Edge Spectroscopy (Edge)• Precision Radiography (PR)• X-ray Tomography Microscope (Xradia)• Spheremapper (SM)• Phase-Shifting Diffraction Interferometer (PSDI)• Automated Microscope (AM)• Acoustic Imaging Microscope (Sonoscan)

Optical Inerference

PSDI Interferometry X-radiography

Technique Measures:• Dimension, dopant• Dopant, impurity• Dopant, impurity• Homogeneity• Dimension, homogeneity• Surface finish, sphericity• Isolated defect, surface• Dimension• Dimension, defect

7. METROLOGY AND CHARACTERIZATION DEVELOPMENT

GA’s IFT production labs characterize their deliveries to whatever level the customer requires ingeometry, composition, surface finish, material properties, and gas permeability. The followinginformation lists current measurements and equipment. We are continuously developing newcapabilities to meet customer needs.

GEOMETRY AND MATERIAL PROPERTIES

Our spheres, hohlraums, and machined plates must meet exacting standards to perform properly forthe high energy density experiments in which they are used. We adapted and developed a unique setof measuring tools to verify their dimensions and topology.

Because our customers require doped layers in many of our shells which incorporate a wide variety ofelements and are sensitive to the presence of other elements (i.e., oxygen), we developed a number oftechniques for the microanalysis of our components.

34 IFT Catalog

Contact Radiography

We developed a nondestructive technique to profile graded dopants in ICF shells to the precisionrequired by NIF specifications, a key technology that enables the close-loop dopant quality control intarget fabrication. This quantitative contact radiography method was based on precision filmdigitization and a dopant simulation model. Recently, we improved the technique to differentiatecopper and argon profiles which can be simultaneously present in a shell wall. We can detect dopantvariation to better than 0.1 at. %. The average dopant is accurate to ±0.1 at. %. Contact radiographyalso provides accurate dimensional information through the proper corrections of various distortionsinduced by the imaging lens, the point projection geometry, and x-ray refraction. The procedures wedeveloped allow measurement accuracies of ±0.5 μm for the capsule diameter, ±0.2 μm for the out-of-round [(OOR) which is the amplitude of the radius variations], ±0.3 μm for the wall thickness(including each sub-layer), and ±0.1 μm for wall thickness profile.

Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS)

The NIF point-design ablator capsule contains copper as the dopant and argon and oxygen ascontaminants. The concentrations and profiles need to be measured to ±0.1 at. % (copper), ±0.1 at. % (argon), ±0.4 at. % (oxygen), respectively. We developed a physics-based EDS model andfabricated standards to make it quantitative for low concentration of relatively light elements in a verylow-Z matrix. No commercial EDS model exists that is applicable to beryllium with low concentrationof dopants.

X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF)

Commercial XRF systems can only calculate elements atomic percent in flat samples. We developeda unique XRFer program for quantitative XRF computation on spherical samples such as the ICFablator capsules. This method is accurate to 10% for high-Z elements and has the trace detectioncapability at 1 ppm level for contamination control.

White-Light Interferometer

We developed a custom white-light interferometer to measure the wall thickness of multilayeredtransparent shells to 0.05 μm accuracy. This method, though limited to measure the wall only at theNorth Pole and the South Pole, is the primary calibration standard used to benchmark other wallthickness characterization tools.

Contact radiography image of graded Be shell. Dopant profiles determined by x-ray methods.

IFT Catalog 35

Spheremapper

Spheremapper uses AFM to measure equatorial traces on a rotating shell and is used to measure(high mode) surface roughness and (low mode) shell distortion on ICF shells to NIF specifications with1 nm system noise. Until a few years ago, Spheremapper gave only a statistical picture of the capsulesurface. The standard set of profiles (three parallel traces along three mutually orthogonal greatcircles) sampled only a small fraction of the surface of the capsule. We made a two part upgrade: (1) new motor drivers and software allowed the atomic force microscope (AFM) head to follow thecurve of the capsule up to ±0.3 radians from the equator, and (2) new analysis software allowed thereconstruction of these traces into a representation of the complete capsule surface. With theseupgrades, Spheremapper is capable of providing complete and accurate measurements of the midmodes. We also constructed a second Spheremapper located in a beryllium laboratory to meet theproduction metrology throughput required for Be shells.

Whole-Image White Light Interferometry (WYKO)

Using a WYKO, we can map and give quantitative statistics of transparent or machined surfaces witha maximum extent ~1 cm, minimum resolution laterally <10 nm, and vertically <10 nm.

Optical Microscopy

We have a large number of Nikon metrology microscopes whose objective and stage configuration canbe modified to suit specific measurement needs.

Automated Microscopy

We developed a batch measurement tools for screening PAMS and GDP shells for outer diameter,inner diameter, wall thickness, out-of-round, and non-concentricity. It is based on a Nikon NEXIVmeasuring microscope with custom programming. The batch tool enables 20 shells to be measuredat a time without operator presence which greatly increases our production metrology throughput. Italso complements the white-light interferometer and the wallmapper very well.

The setup of the AFM drives facilitate full surface mapping, an important improvement over previouscharacterization. The spheremapper controller can move the AFM head along the curve of the capsule ± 0.3radians from the equator before interference between the AFM head and the capsule. To do this, the SM controllermust take control of a motor normally used by the AFM system for automatically engaging the AFM tip. Thedistortions are magnified 300 times in the view.

36 IFT Catalog

Wallmapper (Transparent Capsules)

In the original version, the wallmapper was a piggy-backed instrument on the Spheremapper. It usesa FilMetric spectrometer to measure the optical thickness of transparent samples based on thespectral interference. It uses the Spheremapper rotary encoder to keep track of the angles. The wallthickness trace obtained this way is repeatable to 1 nm precision. The accuracy is limited by theknowledge on the refractive index. Recently, we constructed a second, stand alone wallmapper tomeet the increasing demand of NIF metrology.

Absorption Edge Spectroscopy (Edge)

We developed the Edge method to measure the areal density of any element with an atomic numberZ > 17. It does not suffer the matrix effect as in XRF and requires no reference standard to achieve± 3% 1-σ accuracy. This method is applicable to a variety of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) andHigh Energy Density (HED) targets. It also provides calibration and validation to other dopant profilingtools.

Precision Radiography

We designed and constructed a precision radiography system to measure x-ray opacity variation in anablator capsule to 10-4 accuracy at 120 μm spatial resolution. Recent improvement in x-ray tubedesign enables us to complete full-surface measurement in 1 day. This instrument is unique in itsability to see not only the surface perturbations but also the variations caused by nonuniformity of thedopant layers. Our innovative design allows us to bypass the counting saturation problem associatedwith CCD systems and to overcome the 10-3 long-term system drifts in order to achieveunprecedented measurement accuracy.

GA built Wallmapper.

Shell withspecified P2

Shape

Wallmapper results.

IFT Catalog 37

Phase Shifting Diffraction Interferometer (PSDI)

Commercial interferometers are geared to measure flat surfaces or curved surfaces with very largeradius of curvatures. They cannot effectively measure 2 mm ablator capsules. On the other hand,NIF ignition campaign requires 100% of the capsules be inspected for defects. Based on thedevelopment work carried out by LLNL, a PSDI was designed and built which combines the automatedmotion control and a Twyman Green-type interferometer to map the entire shell surface in ~110images. The resulting height map has a sensitivity of ~2 nm and a spatial resolution of ~1 μm. Wedeveloped custom software to batch process the images in order to retrieve surface roughness, powerspectra, and point defect statistics. With the automation, a shell surface can be completely mappedin a few hours to NIF specification. The instrument can also measure the interior surface of a shellfragment.

Xradia Wallmapper (Transparent and Opaque Capsules)

We developed a 3D wallmapping capability based on a commercial Xradia MicroXCT x-raymicroscope to measure the wall thickness of samples that cannot be measured with our opticalwallmapper. These samples include opaque samples such as beryllium shells, low reflectivity samplessuch as foam shells, and multiple-layered shells such as the NIF point design shells. The method has a0.3 μm measurement precision and, through phase contrast calibration, can achieve 0.3 μm accuracy.

Snapshots of capsule on (a) PSDI stage, (b) N2 pressurized transfer chamber, (c) PSDI Shell Flipper, and (d) closeup (gravity acts downward in each image).

Comparison of Xradia and Filmetric Wallmapper results on the same sample shell.

Wall Profile for the Equator

Equator_3D MapFilmetric Wallmapper

Longitude (degree)

GDP

Wal

l (μ

m)

38 IFT Catalog

FTIR Transmission Spectroscopy

A Nicolet Nexus FTIR spectrometer is used to measure the transmission of a flat witness foil to revealthe composition of a similarly produced shell. This is most often used to quantify oxygen pickup inshells and to determine how much air exposure is acceptable in processing and after delivery.

Densitometry

A gradient density column with NIST-traceable floats is used to measure the density of capsulematerials.

Auger Spectroscopy

A Physical Electronics auger spectrometer is implemented for the elemental analysis of thin films andelemental depth profiling of target components to depths over 1-2 μm.

Scanning Electron Microscopy with EDX

A JEOL scanning electron microscope and an Oxford INCA EDX are combined to evaluate samplesto 10,000X magnification. Surface morphology and element composition are measured at thesubmicron level.

FTIR absorption data for oxygen pickup in SiGDP and strong CD.

Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA)

The pyrolysis of target material and processes arestudied, e.g., converting Si-GDP shells to SiO2 shells,using TGA methods.

IFT Catalog 39

8. PRECISION TARGET ASSEMBLY

GA has been involved in assembly activities for ICF since 1991. The assembly Activities are brokeninto those performed onsite at the national labs and LLE and those performed on-site at GA. GA has,directly or through its subcontractors, supplied trained and qualified assembly personnel for work on-site at LLNL and LANL as well as at LLE. These assembly activities have been crucial to the ICFeffort and GA assemblers at LLNL have won several awards.

On-site assembly activities at GA are largely and specifically geared towards NIF targets. GAassembles complicated double-shell targets as well as a host of other targets for OMEGA experimentsas needed. One major NIF assembly effort involves capsule fill tube assembly (CFTA) for current NIFtargets, which was transferred to GA in 2006 and has been transferred to production by continuing thedevelopment to transform the process into a robust reproducible one. CFTA’s are now produced byassembling 10 to 30 μm o.d. drilled holes in high density carbon (HDC) shells with 1400 to 2500 μmo.d., all of which are needed for NIF target development and experiments. After assembly, the CFTAundergoes leak testing, pressure testing, and x-ray fluorescence measurement for validation prior toshipping, all of which were fully developed at GA in collaboration with LLNL. Due to the fragile natureof CFTA, special tooling has been designed and verified through successful transport of over 100assemblies to LLNL and LANL. The CFTA has proven to be extremely robust; these assemblies havebeen used in a variety of cryogenic and non-cryogenic experiments.

The CFTA station has three two-axis micromanipulators, two Sony XCD cameras, stereoscope, twogoniometers, a nitrogen purge system, an oxygen analysis system, a vacuum system to seat the filltube during attachment, helium adapters for leak testing, and numerous other fittings and equipmentrequired for assembly and testing.

CFTA station. Fabrication of CFTA target.

Final capsule fill tube assembly target.

40 IFT Catalog

Another assembly built by GA is the thermal mechanical package (TMP)subassembly, which is used in current NIF targets. The current NIFtarget design requires a thermal package on the outside of the hohlraum.This thermal package is the transition point for the silicon cooling armsto hold the target and provides for the heaters and sensors. A detailedprocedure was developed for this critical assembly at GA in closecollaboration with LLNL and turned into a production process withdedicated personnel. In the assembly laboratory, a heater is wrappedaround the aluminum can, and the aluminum can is precision mated tothe silicon arm and bonded. Sensors and heaters are installed and,finally, the wiring harness attached. The electronic connections areverified using custom-built, automated LabView-driven testing.

GA-BUILT DUAL THETA ASSEMBLY/CHARACTERIZATION STATION

In 2004, GA built a dual theta assembly/characterization at SNL using commercially availableequipment to support SNL experiments on Omega. The system has two fixed cameras that define athree dimensional “area of interest.” There are two positioners controlled by computerizedmicromanipulators that can move in x, y, z and rotate with 75 μm and 0.1 deg control. The softwarehas edge detection and the ability to import CAD overlays for ease of assembly and sub-microncharacterization of as-built conditions for targets. A GUI interface was programmed to match thealignment within the Omega chamber so the target can be rotated to the desired view and picturestaken to assist the experimenter when aligning at Omega. While the system was built for Omegatargets, its “area of interest” has proven to be large enough to be useful for larger targets such as thoseused at Z and could potentially be used for NIF-type targets. Recently, GA duplicated this system andput it into service in San Diego.

NIF ignition target whichincludes TMP subassembly.

New operational assembly station at GA.

Assembly station in use at SNL.

IFT Catalog 41

9. CRYO TARGET HANDLING

The GA IFT group developed a talented team of scientists, engineers, and technicians for the designand fabrication of target handling and insertion systems. We worked closely with various nationallaboratories to design, develop, and deliver cryogenic target handling systems for laboratoryexperiments. GA’s cryogenic engineering experience includes involvement on several major tasksincluding the Omega cryogenic target system, several systems for LLNL, a cryosystem for the FrenchICF program, and a cryogenic fluidized-bed system for the HAPL program. More recently, GA IFT stafflead the development and design of the NIF cryogenic target handling system components on-site atLLNL in an integrated fashion in collaboration with LLNL personnel.

Our experience spans cryogenic systems as well as rep-rated target insertion and positioning systemsfor 6 Hz operation. We constructed laboratory-scale demonstrations for tracking targets after injectionand hitting them on-the-fly with accuracies of 10s of microns.

Examples of GA IFT Expertise:

1. OMEGA-CRYO Target Handling System with UR/LLE and LANL

2. D2 Test Systems for LLNL-CRYO

3. Study Fill Station (SFS) for CEA

4. Continue to support LLNL/NIF with cryo target system design and engineering for ignition

5. Target Inserter with Rutherford Atomic Laboratory (RAL)

- RT insertion and position for shot rates on order of 1 per minute

6. Robotic Assembly

- Develop capability to supply targets at 1 per minute

Robotic metrology stationfor target insertion system

for Gemini laser.

42 IFT Catalog

NIF CRYOGENIC TARGET SYSTEM

General Atomics personnel assigned on-site at LLNL are participating in the design andimplementation of the NIF Cryogenic Target system (CTS) as shown below. This work is under thedirection and management of LLNL staff and is part of the National Ignition Campaign (NIC).

Cryogenic mass-production layering system.

Cryogenic target system provides the systems necessary tocool, characterize, and position the NIF ignition target.

IFT Catalog 43

GA contributed to the design and development of the NIF CTS which incorporates a cryogenic systemcalled the Ignition Target Inserter Cryostat (ITIC) to cool the target (below).

The ITIC provides cryogenic temperature control of the target while ensuring that all structureinfluencing target position is maintained at room temperature. The figure above (a) shows a prototypeof the cryogenic system. It consists of the cryocooler [(a) left edge], connected to the cryogenic thermalcapacitance device, followed by a coaxial structure reaching to the target base [(a) right].

The figure below presents laboratory test results using the cryogenic system above that demonstratesbetter than the required ±1 mK hohlraum temperature control with the cryocooler cycling on and off.The stability was demonstrated over a 48 h period with a 4 min off/6 min on duty cycle.

(a) Ignition target inserter cryostat (ITIC) system. (b) ITIC structure assembled.

Demonstration results for temperature stability of the NIF cryocooler.

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10. INERTIAL FUSION ENERGY

General Atomics designed and constructed demonstrations for every step of IFE target supply fromcapsule fabrication through filling/layering and tracking for Direct Drive ICF. We lead and contributedto studies for IFE and FI target supplies with NRL and LLNL. We demonstrated processes for makingfoam target capsules which are the reference target supply for IFE. We demonstrated capabilities tocoat IFE capsules in large batches with plasma polymer and metallic coatings. The General AtomicsIFT Team, using fluidized bed technology, designed and built a system to allow large- scalepermeation of fill gases and cryogenic layering for IFE capsules.

We developed robotic assembly for IFE target systems. GA IFT expanded gas-gun andelectromagnetic target injection expertise to allow control and acceptable rep-rate delivery of targetsto IFE reactor chambers. We designed and built a steering and tracking engagement system thatprovided engagement results good to 34 μm RMS.

Steps in the mass production of IFE capsules.

Fluidized bedmass-productioncryolayering of

capsules.

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Robotic target assembly.

Rep-rated target inserter and positioner.

Injection micromolding for massproduction of IFE targets.

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Results of target engagement (hit-on-fly) system.

Scaled system for target engagement oflaser driver beam for IFE.

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General Atomics: Developing Energy Solutions to Meet Global NeedsFor more information about our products, view our Target Catalog at www.ga.com/energy/ift

09-09/12

IFT Catalog

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