SCANTRON-A HIGH POWER MICRO-WAVE GENERATOR

LOW VOLTAGE KLYSTRONS ARE RELIABLE AND EFFICIENT (GREATER THAN 30 PERCENT) MICROWAVE AMPLIFIERS, BUT ARE LIMITED TO POWER LEVELS OF 10-20 MW AND ARE DIFFICULT TO SCALE TO HIGHER VOLTAGE DUE TO THE INCREASING SCALE LENGTH FOR LONGITUDINAL BEAM BUNCHING. WE PROPOSE HERE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCANTRON WHICH PRESERVES MANY OF THE ATTRACTIVE FEATURES OF KLYSTRON BUT WHICH CAN BE DRIVEN BY HIGH VOLTAGE, RELATIVISTIC, ELECTRON BEAMS, OUTPUT POWER OF SUCH DEVICES ARE PROJECTED TO APPROACH 1 GW IN THE FREQUENCY RANGE 100 MHZ TO A FEW GHZ. THE SCANTRON COUPLES THE TECHNOLOGY OF SHORT PULSE, HIGH VOLTAGE PULSED POWER GENERATION WITH A NEW METHOD TO COUPLE LONGITUDINAL ENERGY IN RF OSCILLATIONS IN A MULTI-CAVITY EXTRACTOR THROUGH SPATIAL SCANNING. A 1 MV DESIGN IS ESTIMATED TO GIVE AN OUTPUT POWER GREATER THAN 0.3 GW MODULE AT 2GHZ. EXTENSION OF THE DEVICE TO A MULTIMODULE DESIGN WITH A SINGLE PULSED POWER GENERATOR WILL ALLOW SCALING TO GREATER THAN 10 GW WITH PULSE LENGTHS AS LONG AS 1 MICROSECOND. PHASE I WILL ENCOMPASS ANALYSIS OF THE PULSED POWER DRIVER AND SCANTRON AND DESIGN OF A 0.3 GW DEMONSTRATION SYSTEM.