In this article, we present a multichannel source with cold electrodes generating spatially combined ion and electron beams with homogeneous profile of current density on 100 mm diam. The source was designed on the basis of a modified Penning cell. The anode configuration provides high current efficiency, reaching 50% under certain conditions. The source has two operating modes: ion beam generation and synthesized ion‐electron flow. High current densities 0.5–5 mA/cm2of ion and electron beams with energies in the range of 0.5–7 keV under low working pressure (1–10)×10−5Torr are the advantage of this source. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.