A Novel Compact and Portable Linear Accelerator Electron Beam System

• Published in: IEEE transactions on plasma science Vol. 51; no. 4; pp. 1 - 7
• Main Authors: Miller, R. Bruce, Trujillo, Henry, Johnson, Richard W., Andreev, Andrey D., Smith, Don, Lopez, Alberto, Lockwood, Nathaniel P., Enderich, Daniel A., Harris, John R., Schaub, Samuel C., Lambrecht, Michael R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-04-2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Couplings; Electron beams; electron linear accelerators (LINACs); Frequency modulation; Linear accelerators; Linear particle accelerator; Magnetic resonance; Portability; Radio frequency; Standing waves; Voltage
• ISSN: 0093-3813; 1939-9375
• DOI: 10.1109/TPS.2023.3255004

A lightweight, portable 15 MeV electron beam linear accelerator (LINAC) system has been developed for research applications. Our approach uses a commercial, off-the-shelf magnetron to drive an S-band standing-wave accelerator. The magnetron is driven by a Type-E pulse forming network (PFN), the modulator, switched with a thyratron. Within the modulator macropulse, short (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX"><</tex-math> </inline-formula>100 ns), high-frequency (up to 3500 Hz) electron beam pulses are produced by gating the electron current from a triode electron gun. The entire system is contained within approximately 2 m<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">^{3}</tex-math> </inline-formula>, weighs 250 kg, and can be disassembled into two person-portable components, each weighing 50 kg or less.