Berkeley Lab
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High Power RF Engineering

 

High Power Radio Frequency (RF) Engineering is a specialized field of electrical engineering that deals with components and systems that operate at well above the audio frequencies band. Historically, RF Engineering began over 100 years ago with the advent of wireless telegraphy known today as radio. High Power RF Engineering has grown enormously and is now used in all forms of communication systems utilizing transmitters, receivers and antennas, in industrial processing such heating, curing and sterilization, in many forms of imaging such as medical, geological and materials as well as in computer engineering due to their ever increasing computing speeds. At the Berkeley Lab, we primarily use High Power RF Engineering to detect and measure the presence and position of atomic particles, to design mechanical structures to facilitate the transport of atomic particles, to design accelerating structures with large electric fields used to accelerate particles, and to design and operate kilo-watt to multi-mega-watt RF amplifiers used to provide power to these accelerating structures.