Helion Energy is operating under the industry's most aggressive commercial timeline, having signed a binding power purchase agreement with Microsoft for 2028. To resolve fundamental plasma physics questions regarding the formation and merging of field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma rings without exhausting the resources required for full-scale prototypes, the company has commissioned 'Tiny Merge.'
This eight-foot-long tubular testbed is less than one-eighth the size of Polaris and utilizes heavy-duty capacitor banks to enable rapid, low-cost diagnostic iterations. Engineers can test coil geometries, pulse-timing sequences, and diagnostic placements in weeks rather than the months required on the main Polaris assembly line.
This eight-foot-long tubular testbed is less than one-eighth the size of Polaris and utilizes heavy-duty capacitor banks to enable rapid, low-cost diagnostic iterations.
Data gathered from Tiny Merge will directly inform the final engineering designs for Orion, Helion's commercial-scale facility. The company has emphasized that FRC merging — the collision and thermalization of two counter-propagating plasma rings — remains the single most consequential physics uncertainty in its path to net electricity.