A Novel Compact and Portable Linear Accelerator Electron Beam System

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 (< 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
$\text{m}^{3}$
, weighs 250 kg, and can be disassembled into two person-portable components, each weighing 50 kg or less.