The MTT-S Historical Collection [MTT World]

The historical exhibit at the 2014 International Microwave Symposium (IMS2014) in Tampa, Florida, USA, marked the 35th anniversary of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) Historical Collection. The collection was started and first displayed at IMS1980 in Washington, D.C. According to a report by Ted Saad: At the 15 January 1980 MTT-S Administrative Committee (AdCom) meeting in Washington, D.C., Dr. Steve Adam, the then AdCom president, gave me the task of preparing a "historical exhibit" for the 1980 MTT-S Symposium to be held in Washington on 28–30 May 1980. No specifications or instructions were given. The exhibit was an outgrowth of a suggestion on the part of Dr. John Horton, who for several years had proposed some type of microwave hall of fame. The collection has grown steadily over the years and now consists of more than 1000 cataloged items. At the end of 2014, there were 522 pieces of hardware, 328 books, 196 miscellaneous documents, and 14 videos. The hardware artifacts comprise; 353 tubes, including gridded types, klystrons, magnetrons and other crossed-field types, radar transmit‐ receive (T/R) tubes, and tube components; 76 subassemblies or modules, including amplifiers, oscillators, and various test equipment; 56 transmission line items, including couplers, slotted lines, variable attenuators, phase shifters, and filters; 37 individual solid-state components. Some of the artifacts are one-of-akind experimental pieces like the copper- foil-lined wooden block that was used as a waveguide coupler. Many are samples of mass quantities taken from the production line. The oldest truly microwave items are two 1932 splitanode magnetrons from Ross Kilgore of Westinghouse. The newest is a 1996 Litton mini traveling-wave tube (TWT). The books include engineering texts such as a complete 28-volume set of the MIT Radiation Laboratory (Rad Lab) series, biographies of various individuals, company histories, and manufacturers' catalogs.