The Klystron: A Microwave Source of Surprising Range and Endurance
Abstract
The klystron first appeared as a milliwatt-level local oscillator in WWII radars. In less than a decade, it grew into a 30-MW source for the first linear collider at Stanford. The device soon became the high-power microwave source of choice for radar, space communications, and plasma heating. In physics research, it now powers most storage rings, linear accelerators and colliders. Now 60 years old, the klystron has demonstrated remarkable staying power. The development of sophisticated computer programs in the last 10 years has provided an additional quantum jump in performance. Computer codes are now used to design and predict with high accuracy the performance of modern klystrons. At Stanford, a 75-MW X-band klystron is being built with an electron beam focused by periodic permanent magnets. This is the source chosen to power a 1 TeV e+ e- collider, currently in the design stage by American and Japanese scientists. Based on commonly accepted rules of scaling, this is a 20/1 improvement over the klystrons that now power the Stanford Linear Collider. About 7,000 of the new klystrons will be required to power the future collider. In order to meet new, and even more demanding requirements, the latest developments in fabrication technology are being applied to klystron technology. In a concept stage at Stanford, is the most ambitious new klystron project to date, a modular design capable of producing megawatts of power at 92 GHz. In order to fabricate the RF circuitry of these tubes, LIGA, a deep-etch lithography technique is under investigation. Success in this new venture will make synchrotron radiation and semiconductor technology standard tools in the manufacture of millimeter-wave klystrons. The paper will discuss the basic physics of the klystron, outline its history, and describe the recent advances that are giving new life to the device.
- Publication:
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APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- November 1997
- Bibcode:
- 1997APS..DPPfTuR01C