ESE 593 - High Power RF Engineering

The course starts with an essential review of the properties of low and medium power RF waves and components including transmission lines, waveguides and cavities, and then proceeds to highlight the properties and limitations under high power RF conditions. The principal deleterious effects taking place at high power levels are caused by arcing (a high peak power effect) and the ohmic dissipation in the metal walls (a high average power effect). Exceeding the power handling capacity of the RF components can result in expensive repairs. Methods of mitigating or avoiding these expensive repairs are discussed. Important applications of high power rf are discussed in depth. Finally the students are given an extended project on implementing a particle accelerator using the traditional method of placing cylindrical cavities in tandem and using the longitudinal electric field in the TM010 cavity mode to pump RF power into a particle beam and cause the desired acceleration of the charge particles.

3 credits

Grading Letter graded (A, A-, B+, etc.)