The evolution of miniature rugged magnetrons

It is noted that fixed-frequency, tunable devices are now available from a few watts to a megawatt of output power, from 1 GHz to 100 GHz. Such advantages as compactness, high efficiency, high pulse power, and low voltage have enabled the magnetron to satisfy a variety of needs. The devices discussed here typically have an efficiency of 35%, with a pulling figure of about 15 MHz into a mismatch of 1.5:1 at X-band. Magnetron pushing at X-band is typically from 1 to 5 MHz/amp, the peak power being one amp. It is also pointed out that the magnetron may be phase-primed or frequency-locked by a local oscillator to enhance the frequency stability.