First Demonstration and Performance of X-Band High-Power Magnetron With Parallel Cathodes

This article presents an ${X}$ -band high-power magnetron with two parallel cathodes. The phase locking was achieved within the proposed magnetron by two coupled coaxial cavities working at $\pi $ -like mode. The eigenmode, frequency-domain, and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations have been conducted to analyze the characteristics of the proposed magnetron. A magnetron prototype has been designed, fabricated, and tested in Tsinghua University. The total weight of the magnetron together with the permanent magnet system and the asymmetric 3-dB hybrid used to combine the output power was approximately 27 kg. The cold measurements showed good agreement with the frequency-domain simulations. In the high-power experiment, a maximum combined power of 3.43 MW with the duty cycle of 0.54 ‰ was obtained at the working frequency of approximately 9.289 GHz. The combining efficiency and the total efficiency were greater than 99% and 53%, respectively. This is the first experimental demonstration of the internal phase locking of the magnetrons with parallel cathodes.