Cathode Manufacturing Relational Data Collection and Process Control System

The manufacture of cathodes for microwave vacuum electron device industry is in essence the sale of precisely controlled processes verses the sale of goods. The function of a cathode is to produce electrons and while emission testing at cathode level is possible with a beam stick or other such devices to date no economically feasible scheme or device has been developed, that would permit such testing to take place. As such suppliers are charge with manufacturing a device to fit specific emission characteristics that can not be tested until the cathode are built into the electron gun and tube and as such these suppliers must rely on precisely control processes during manufacturing. This paper will discuss in a novel approach for applying multilayered relational database that permits the use of both purchased and customized reporting software for data collection and process monitoring for the purpose of establishing best practices for control of manufacturing.