Klystron
![High-power klystron used for spacecraft communication at the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex.](/Images/godic/202501/22/Klystron1232.jpg")
![5kW klystron tube used as power amplifier in UHF television transmitter, 1952. When installed, the tube projects through holes in the center of the cavity resonators, with the sides of the cavities making contact with the metal rings on the tube.](/Images/godic/202501/22/Klystron_tube_19521232.jpg")
![The first prototype klystron, manufactured by Westinghouse in 1940. Part of the tube is cut away to show the internal construction. On the left are the cathode and accelerating anode, which create the electron beam. In the center between the wooden supports is the drift tube, surrounded by the two donut-shaped cavity resonators, the](/Images/godic/202501/22/Prototype_klystron_cutaway1232.jpg")
![](/Images/godic/202501/22/Klystron.enp1233.gif")
A klystron is a specialized linear-beam vacuum tube, invented in 1937 by American electrical engineers Russell and Sigurd Varian, which is used as an amplifier for high radio frequencies, from UHF up into the microwave range. Low-power klystrons are used as oscillators in terrestrial microwave relay communications links, while high-power klystrons are used as output tubes in UHF television transmitters, satellite communication, and radar transmitters, and to generate the drive power for modern particle accelerators.