Crossed-field devices: where are we and options for the future

Summary form only given, as follows. The industry sale of vacuum electron devices worldwide during 1999 was approximately $488M. The share of this in the crossed-field device (CFD) industry was about $105M, or 21%. The US industry sale of vacuum electron devices during the same time was around $251M with approximately $34M, or 14%, in the CFD industry. There are currently two dominant manufacturers of CFDs in the US and one additional dominant company in the world market. The US industrial sales trend in the recent past for CFDs has been a downward slope. This presentation identifies two concerns facing the US CFD industry and probably the world wide industry: (1) A large number of different organizations (especially in the US Department of Defense) that purchase CFDs, and (2) the limited vertical integration into microwave systems houses by the CFD industry. Both of these concerns are discussed and some suggestions for the industry presented.