25 Year Performance Review of the SLAC 5045 S-Band Klystron

The SLAC 5045 S-band klystron has proven to be a remarkably reliable high peak power tube. Originally developed in the 1980’s as an upgraded RF power source for the Stanford Linear Collider, it has continually powered the SLAC linac in support of numerous programs in particle physics and photon science. The large number of tubes built and operated (more than 800) coupled with accumulated running statistics over the last 25+ years represents an unprecedented wealth of operational experience for high pulse power klystrons in accelerator applications. Mean time between failures has continued to rise during this period and is frequently in excess of 100,000 hours during the last several years. Lifetime statistics as well as some important failure modes are presented and examined here.