Copyright © 2009 IEEE. Reprinted from Microwave Magazine - L-3 ...

FOCUSEDISSUE FEATUREMost microwave engineerstrained inthe art of solid-stateelectronicshavehad little or no exposure to the basicphysics and operational principles ofmodern vacuum electronics technology.Consequently, many fail toappreciate the capability, efficiency,and reliability of this remarkableand durable technologyand fail to take advantage of itas a cost-effective, high-powersolution when makingsystem-level decisions. Thegoal of this article is to bridge part ofthis gap. It is not intended as a tutorial onthe subject; there are textbooks available for thatpurpose [1], [2]. Instead, it has two purposes: Provide thereader with an overview of the current capability of the stateof the art and provide a glimpse of the research trends of thenear future. More information and in-depth analysis can befound in [3], which contains an excellent collection of reviewarticles covering broad aspects of vacuum electronics scienceand technology.Vacuum electronics technology is both old and new;its legacy is impressive and well-known. However, recordCOURTESY OFL-3 ELECTRONTECHNOLOGIES, INC.Joe X. Qiu, Baruch Levush, John Pasour, Allen Katz,Carter M. Armstrong, David R. Whaley, Jack Tucek,Kenneth Kreischer, and David GallagherJoe X. Qiu (joe.qiu@arl.army.mil) is with the Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD 20783. Baruch Levush and John Pasour are withthe Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375. Allen Katz is a professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Departmentat The College of New Jersey, and is President of Linearizer Technology, Inc., Hamilton, New Jersey 08619. Carter M. Armstrong and DavidR. Whaley are with Electron Devices Division, L-3 Communications, San Carlos, California 94070. Jack Tucek, Kenneth Kreischer, and DavidGallagher are with Northrop Grumman Corporation, Rolling Meadows, Illinois 60008.Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2009.93451738 1527-3342/09/$26.00©2009 IEEEDecember 2009Authorized licensed use limited to: US Army Research Laboratory. Downloaded on December 2, 2009 at 13:24 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.