Project summary

The goal of this project is to show the injection locking of a single magnetron and the combination of power of multiple, injection-locked magnetrons at 2.45GHz and a few kilowatts of CW RF power. Magnetrons are considered being one of the most cost effective RF power sources on the market today, but they fully lack the possibility of controlling their frequency, phase and amplitude. Using the concept of injection locking, this level of control can be achieved by priming the magnetron using a lower power solid state amplifier to fix the RF operating parameters at magnetron startup. Once this level of RF power control is achieved, multiple applications could become reality: E.g. the combination of power from many magnetrons into a single application (e.g. an accelerator) or beamforming using a line of multiple magnetrons for controlled and steered heating applications. This technology could enable new applications in the industrial heating market while allowing for lower cost industrial, scientific and medical accelerators. CERN could extend this IP towards industrial or medical particle accelerator relevance by showing the powering of a small scale accelerator with combined, injection locked magnetron RF power.

CERN expertise

CERN contributes its unique experience in the domain of generation, distribution and control of high power RF which acts as a seed environment for this kind of impactful future technology.

Project partner

SolidWatts is a start-up based in France that aims to help use resources more efficiently and migrate industry away from fossil fuels. Their focus lies on how to create Radio Frequency (RF) power in the most efficient, reliable and cost effective way possible