Microwave furnace

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This is a page to document my proposal to build a massive microwave furnace at Noisebridge. I have already acquired all of the parts and supplies, but assembling everything, testing, safety checks, and coordinating on training new users will be quite a process. Please message me on Discord if you're interested in getting involved! You can also check out my website project page covering this effort. MAINTAINER: Lucy (@autopoieesis)

What's involved in building a 10kW microwave furnace

You need an insane magnetron, a 10kW DC sputtering PSU, a high power chiller for the cooling loop, and an assortment of tubing and fittings just to drive the magnetron, all of which I have already acquired. We will also need to build an enclosure for all the guts to live in which incorporates a waveguide/heating chamber, an interlock system, and a workspace to unload the waveguide. The 2kV out of the sputtering PSU will need to be stepped up to the 9kV 1.6A required by the magnetron head, which will require a pretty crazy SiC full bridge LLC (WIP). We also need to sort out the filament PSU and make a for soft-start and filament supply adjustment when the head starts up. One big priority is making sure everything is safe to operate in a community space, which is going to be quite a bit of work. We are gonna need to sort out HV isolation, interlock systems, overtemp protections, ground fault and rf leakage detection, etc.