Development of a 1.5 MW conventional magnetron via numerical simulation

Summary form only given. Researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory´s (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate and magnetron engineers at Communications and Power Industries (CPI) have designed a conventional magnetron intended to deliver 1.5 MW peak power output at 920 MHz. The source was virtually prototyped using AFRL´s state-of-the-art computer simulation software package, the Improved Concurrent Electromagnetic Particle In Cell (ICEPIC) code, a highly parallelized full-wave electromagnetic PIC code that is capable of running on thousands of processors in parallel. The magnetron design was based on a commercially available 75kW magnetron, and then optimized for operating frequency, mode separation, and efficient power extraction. Many design variants were explored including 14, 16, and 18 vanes, strap placement and configuration, axial length, number of RF extraction rods, and cathode radii. The process has yielded an optimum design that meets the established requirements for this new source. Thermal analysis and manufacturability studies have begun prior to fabrication of an experimental prototype.