[Legacy Report] Review on microwave materials processing at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

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Dr. Guido Link,
Senior Scientist and Group Leader, Microwave Materials Processing Group
Institute for Pulsed Power and Microwave Technology
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, GERMANY

will speak on

"Review on microwave materials processing at Karlsruhe Institute of
Technology, Germany"

Abstract: As a spin-off from the R&D of high power microwave sources for heating of magnetically
confined plasmas in nuclear fusion reactors, in 1993 at KIT activities related to materials
processing have been started by use of a compact 30 GHz, 15 kW gyrotron system. This
system has been intensively used for investigations of various potential industrial applications
like high temperature processing of functional and structural ceramics or glasses. Therefore
the original system has been significantly improved with respect to heating uniformity by use
for hexagonal, highly overmoded applicator geometries and has been extended by
development of a hybrid heating module and a dilatometer module. Later on this concept has
been adapted to large scale microwave batch kilns for applications at lower temperatures like
drying, annealing or curing of various materials like ceramics, polymers or fiber composites.
This patented so called HEPHAISTOS technology has been successfully transferred to
industry. Furthermore other single mode applicators have been developed for other specific
applications. The presentation will give a short review of some of those microwave activities
in the field of materials processing.

Bio-sketch of Dr. Guido Link: Dr. Link received the Dipl.-Phys. and Dr.rer.nat.
degrees in physics from the Technical University Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1990 and
1993, respectively. His diploma thesis was devoted to the high-temperature
dependence of the dielectric p r o p e r t i e s of low-loss ceramic ma t e r i a l in the
radio-frequency range. His graduate research w a s concerned with the dielectric
properties of ionic single crystals in the millimeter-wave range at cryogenic
temperatures. Since 1993, he has been working in the field of millimeter-wave materials
p r o c e s s i n g at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany. At present,
h e is working as a group leader and senior scientist with t h e Microwave/ Millimeter
Material Processing Waves Group a t KIT.

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