Impact Lab – Microwave-Drill Technology

Interesting new use for old tech! Wonder if the magnatron is directly attached to the needle or if a waveguide is involved? Guess I need to read the tech specs.

Update – right there in the abstract:

The paper describes a novel method of drilling into hard non-conductive materials by
localized microwave energy (US patent 6,114,676). The Microwave Drill
implementation may utilize a conventional 2.45GHz magnetron, to form a portable
and relatively simple drilling tool. The drilling head consists of a coaxial guide and a
near-field concentrator. The latter focuses the microwave radiation into a small
volume under the drilled material surface. The concentrator itself penetrates into the
hot spot created in a fast thermal runaway process. The microwave drill has been
tested on concrete, silicon, ceramics (in both slab and coating forms), rocks, glass,
plastic, and wood. The paper describes the method and its experimental
implementations, and presents a theoretical model for the microwave drill operation.
The applicability of the method for industrial processes is discussed.

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Cool! Now to see if a microwave oven can be hacked to do the trick… 😉

Another update – In one of the pdf articles I found a diagram that is rather interesting too.

Adjustable focus mirror and movable needle seem to be the only things not in a standard microwave setup. Interesting…