Powers achieved include 150 watts peak at W-band and 1.5kw cw at Ka band in very compact, permanent magnet focused devices. Future goals include enhanced bandwidth, low voltage modulation and further increase in average power. At lower frequencies, S to Ka-band, significant progress has been made in developing new klystrons for communications. These klystrons for the first time use multi-stage depressed collectors, which have resulted in a linear operation efficiency improvement by a factor of two. Multi megawatt klystrons power the radiation therapy machines that, in total, treat over 100,000 cancer patients daily .
Industrial applications abound.
Klystrons and their crossed field counterparts are key to new methods of cold pasteurization of food products. Heating applications run the gamut from food preparation to rubber vulcanization to printed circuit board curing in a manner that is superior and environmentally safer. A milestone achievement was the demonstration of a 100Kw peak, 10Kw average power gyro-TWT at 94 GHz for next generation millimeter wave radar applications. Such fast-wave devices continue to hold promise for high power military applications in radar, communications, electronic warfare, and directed energy. The gyrotron program at CPI has continued to benefit substantially from the DOE and foreign sponsored fusion energy research programs for which cw powers of 1Mw at about 100 GHZ are now being approached.