Gyrotrons
Gyrotron Capabilities
Due to its extensive expertise in the design, development, and construction of gyrotron microwave power sources, CPI is uniquely suited to provide high-power gyro-devices for a variety of applications, including plasma heating, particle acceleration, high-resolution radar, non-lethal weapons, and industrial heating, curing, and sintering. In addition to the gyrotron designs that have already been developed, we also specialize in the development of customized designs to meet specific frequency, power and pulse duration requirements.CPI's years of experience in the development of gyro-devices have provided us with the tools necessary to manufacture existing designs as well as to advance the state of the art. These resources include the computer codes used to generate new designs and analyze results, the cold-test facilities required to develop the RF circuits, and the fabrication and test facilities needed to manufacture and validate high-power gyro-devices. Most importantly, CPI has personnel with the skills and experience to ensure that every stage of the process, from design to installation, is performed efficiently and effectively.
Historical Background
Since 1977, CPI has delivered over 130 gyrotrons and constructed more than 16 experimental vehicles, ranging in frequency from 8 GHz to over 250 GHz at power levels up to 1.3 MW pulsed and 900 kW continuous wave (CW).In 1975,CPI was chosen by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study devices capable of producing hundreds of kilowatts of CW power output at frequencies in the 100 GHz range. The study resulted in the award of a contract to CPI for the production of a 200 kW CW gyrotron at 28 GHz. Since the completion of the program in 1980, gyrotron oscillators have been designed, developed, and shipped at 12 other frequencies. Technological innovations have led to impressive advancements in the state-of-the-art. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond output windows have allowed development of CW sources at megawatt power levels. Internal quasi-optical mode converters allow whispering-gallery cavity modes in the gyrotron to be converted to Gaussian output beams with minimal diffractive loss. Funding by the Department of Energy has led to the development of a successful product line of 1 MW, 110 GHz long-pulse gyrotrons (VGT-8110) and a new, enhanced-efficiency version capable of producing up to 1.3 MW (VGT-8115).
In addition to the production of gyrotron oscillators, CPI also specializes in the design and fabrication of gyro-amplifiers using the cyclotron resonance principle. These devices, called gyro-klystrons or gyro-TWTs (depending on the type of beam-to-RF interaction employed), provide the high power required for coherent radar and communication applications at millimeter-wave frequencies.
Milestones
In May, 2000, CPI's VGB-8194 gyro-klystron demonstrated the ability to produce 100 kW peak power (10 kW average) with a bandwidth of 700 MHz at a frequency of 94 GHz. The same device was also operated at 1.05 GHz bandwidth at 40 kW peak power (4 kW average). Development of the VGB-8194 was funded by the Naval Research Laboratory.In 2005, CPI’s VGB-8190 gyro-TWT demonstrated the ability to produce 2 kW peak power (0.8 kW average) with a bandwidth of 6.5 GHz around a center frequency of 95.5 GHz.
In March, 2005, at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany, CPI’s VGT-8141, produced nearly 900kW of output power, at a frequency of 140 GHz, for 30-minute pulses. The gyrotron will be used in the electron cyclotron heating system on the Wendelstein 7X magnetic fusion experiment in Greifswald.
In January, 2007, the first public demonstration of the Air Force’s vehicle-mounted Active Denial System was held at Moody Air Force Base. This advanced non-lethal weapon system uses CPI’s VGB-8095 gyrotron to generate a 95 GHz, 100 kW beam which provides a safe but effective deterrent.