Adelphi Technology, Inc. manufactures a line of long-lifetime, high-output neutron generators. These sources do not suffer from the same limited lifetimes as common Penning diodes, which produce only a certain number of neutrons and then must be discarded. Additionally, novel anode designs can be accommodated to further boost the production of neutrons, typically neutrons per second. Please see the sidebar for why this is important.

The core technology of this new type of neutron generator was developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and licensed to Adelphi in 2005. These generators use an active pumping method wherein the deuterium is continually replenished to maintain continuous operation pressure with no loss of neutron yield over many thousands of hours of operation. Adelphi’s current line of neutron generators use the D-D reaction to generate 2.5 MeV neutrons. Other generators currently available on the market use radioactive tritium gas, are sealed, and have a lifetime of between 1000-2000 hours, depending upon the maximum yield being used.

Adelphi currently also has an active research and development program to develop generators that use the DT reaction to produce 14 MeV neutrons. These generators will not have active pumping but are expected to have a long lifetime.

Adelphi’s generators have been encased in moderating materials to slow the neutrons to other energies as required for particular tasks. Compact moderators of inexpensive polyethylene have been used to produce thermal neutrons for prompt gamma neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) and neutron activation analysis (NAA). These thermal neutron sources can then be used to identify small amounts of most materials.

Adelphi offers both standard product neutron sources and special-made custom designs. To ensure the best possible solution for you, our engineers work with each client individually and make appropriate suggestions to the neutron source setup. Please contact us via email at sales@adelphitech.com, so we can better understand your needs.

Also, be sure to check out information provided on this website describing neutron facts, neutron application overview, a comparison of neutron sources to x-ray sources, and a note on medical neutron therapy.