It is expected that the domestic production of high-power electromagnetic wave transmitting devices, which were previously entirely dependent on imports, will contribute to improving the industrial structure in the medical, industrial, defense, and environmental sectors.


The team of Dr. Geun-Joo Kim and Dr. Jeong-Il Kim of the Electro-Medical Device Research Center of the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI, Acting President Dong-Wook Yoo), an electrical research institute under the National Research Council of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Science and ICT, has developed the world's fifth domestically produced 'magnetron' technology capable of transmitting high-power megawatt (MW) level electromagnetic waves used in the medical and various industrial fields.

A magnetron, well known for its working principle in microwave ovens, is a type of electromagnetic wave generator that converts the electric energy of an electron beam generated in a high vacuum space into high-power electromagnetic wave energy and radiates it. Magnetrons have different applications depending on their output. Megawatt (MW) class magnetrons are used in many fields that require high output electromagnetic waves, such as medicine, industry, defense, and the environment.

On the other hand, since a high level of technology is required for a wide range of applications, only a few advanced countries such as the United States and Japan have monopolized the technology, and Korea has been dependent on overseas imports for all of its applications.

This achievement by KERI is the development of a 'high-power 3.1MW magnetron technology (based on the 3.0GHz frequency of the S-Band)', which is most widely used in various medical and industrial fields around the world, using only domestic technology.

KERI magnetron technology boasts performance that goes beyond domestic production and surpasses that of existing technologies developed by advanced countries. It is the first in the world to apply a 'dual-tuner frequency control structure', and has a frequency bandwidth that is 1.6 times wider than existing commercial products. This means that high-power electromagnetic waves can be used more stably in various industrial fields. In addition, by applying a permanent magnet-based magnetic circuit, the magnetron device has been made smaller and lighter, and its compatibility with various application systems, installation efficiency, and space utilization have been improved.

The developed MW-class magnetron is expected to be utilized in various fields, including medical linear accelerator-based radiation cancer treatment devices utilizing high-power electromagnetic waves, non-destructive testing devices, sterilization and disinfection devices, waste disposal devices in industrial sites, and safety, security, search and detection radars in the defense sector. The research team reports that the localization of MW-class magnetron technology, which previously relied entirely on imports, will greatly contribute to strengthening the technological capabilities of the domestic industrial structure as a whole.

KERI's Dr. Geun-Joo Kim, the research developer, said, "This achievement is the development of Korea's first and only MW-class medical and industrial magnetron technology that combines our research institute's own 3D multi-physics analysis technology, engineering structural design technology, and measurement technology." He added, "Based on the advantages of excellent performance and device miniaturization and light weight, we have greatly increased the convenience and usability for users of magnetrons."

The KERI research team has secured domestic and international patents related to this original technology and is currently accelerating research on application systems using MW-class magnetrons. In addition, it is expected that this achievement will receive much attention from industries that require high-power electromagnetic waves, and plans to discover related demand companies and promote technology commercialization.