The X-band klystron program at SLAC

The X-band rf source development at SLAC can be considered a qualified success. A total of twelve klystrons were built. Six of them are still in use. The latest tube, XL4, produced 75 MW at an efficiency of 47.5 percent. However, victory cannot be declared as yet, since an NLC prototype has not been fully designed and the decision between permanent magnet focusing and a super-conducting solenoid has not been formally made. Daryl Sprehn`s paper will present the status of the PPM klystron development. The authors believe that a PPM X-band source will work, at 50 as well as at 75 megawatts. But they are prepared to adapt the XL4 design to a super-conducting solenoid, should the PPM klystron develop unexpected problems. The SLAC program is now in its seventh year. It may well be the longest and most expensive microwave tube development on record, in a government laboratory or in industry. Direct and related costs for the total effort are probably of the order of $10 million. In these circumstances it is perhaps not surprising that it has been possible to produce a klystron with the performance of XL4. At the same time, it must be said that the necessary leap in technology from the SLAC 60-megawatt S-band production klystrons to a klystron of comparable performance at four times the frequency could not be realized without some very careful experimentation and, most importantly, without the infrastructure for tube fabrication and testing available at SLAC. The design of an 11.4 GHz 50--100 MW klystron, with microsecond pulses and a pulse repetition frequency of 180 Hz presents a number of technical challenges which are listed here