Amplifiers to Replace 1497 MHz Klystrons at Thomas Jefferson Laboratories

At present, there is a significant need for high power (5-20kW) solid state RF amplifiers (HPSSA), operating at frequencies between 50MHz to 1500MHz. Higher performance, higher efficiency, more reliable and cost effective alternatives to IOTs and klystrons is best achieved with solid state amplifiers (SSAs); where advantages of the modular HPSSA architecture over traditional IOTs and klystrons will afford the National Laboratories with the following: 1) High Beam Availability (with careful design consideration, modularized system architecture can offer full performance even when device degradation or failure occurs); 2)High operating efficiencies; 3) Very low phase noise / phase jitter parameters compared to IOTs and klystrons; 4) Distributed heat dissipation prolongs module life and offers easier maintainability; 5) Eliminate the need for expensive high voltage power supplies; 6) Warm-up sequence eliminated; 7) Minimized logistical support for spare parts / reduced spare parts; 8) Simplified maintenance when required hot swappable architecture with no system down-times; 9) Easily scalable to provide higher RF power levels. Communication Power Corporation, Inc (CPC) has been a pioneer in the development and deployment of high power SSA systems. CPC proposes to apply and extend its SSA technologies to develop HPSSA modules that will meet the requirements of this SBIR, using combination of commercially available devices at 1497MHz to achieve highest RF output power at module level as a base line to meeting a building block for higher power combiner networks. Approaches to maximizing RF power, operating efficiencies, and heat dissipation, redundancy and reliability will be investigated. In phase I, CPC will investigate various architectures to achieve the power budgets of this topic, and provide analytical and experimental data to support further architecture optimization. In phase II, CPC will use the optimal design as the basis for a prototype multi-kW system to demonstrate and validate the Phase I architecture to allow its use as a replacement for the klystron (model VKL7811) presently used at Thomas Jefferson Laboratory. This SBIR effort will allow the DOEs National Laboratories to move to operational deployment of HPSSAs in the near term.