Novel High Power Pulsed Mode Operation of Commercial Continuous-Wave Magnetron

Abstract

In this article, for the first time, we proposed and studied the operation of industrial 1 kW continuous-wave (CW) S-band magnetrons in a high-power pulsed mode. It turns out that these devices in standard version have a superior pulsed performance: range of stable regulation of pulse power with high efficiency up to 8 kW, pulse duration from <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.3~\mu \text{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to continuous mode, and repetition rate of at least 1 MHz. The possibility of forming sequences of paired pulses with an adjustable time shift from <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1~\mu \text{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> has been demonstrated. The parameters are provided both in the free-running and injection-locking modes. A specialized high-voltage pulse power supply (PPS) with adjustable parameters was designed for measurements. On a passive resistive load, the PPS provides output high voltage of 4.0–5.2 kV, output current up to 3 A in pulse and 0.5 A in average mode, pulse duration from <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.1~\mu \text{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , pulse edges less than 0.1 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> , and repetition rate up to 1 MHz. The effect of limiting the pulsed microwave power by emission current was detected for the first time. The investigated CW magnetrons in pulsed mode can be used in microwave technology, accelerator equipment, and for research purposes.