Rudolf Kompfner (May 16, 1909 – December 3, 1977) was an Austrian-born inventor, physicist and architect, best known as the inventor of the

traveling-wave tube A traveling-wave tube (TWT, pronounced "twit") or traveling-wave tube amplifier (TWTA, pronounced "tweeta") is a specialized vacuum tube that is used in electronics to amplify radio frequency (RF) signals in the microwave range. The TWT belongs t ...

(TWT).

Life

Kompfner was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

to Jewish parents. He was originally trained as an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and after receiving his university degree in 1933 he moved to England (due to the rise of anti-Semitism), where he worked as an architect until 1941. He had a strong interest in physics and

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

, and after being briefly detained by the British at the start of World War II he was recruited to work in a secret

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ran ...

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. The type kn ...

research program at the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

. While there, Kompfner invented the TWT in 1943. After the war he became a British citizen, continued working for the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral * Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings *Admiralty, Tr ...

as a scientist, and also studied physics at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, receiving his

D.Phil. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in 1951. In 1965, he received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from the Vienna University of Technology.

Patents

1957 * Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier. (Issued 8/27/57.) * Traveling Wave Tube. (Issued 10/29/57.) * Electron Beam System. (Issued 11/5/57.) 1958 * Traveling Wave Tube. (Issued 5/13/58.) * Electron Beam System. (Issued 10/21/58.) * Non-reciprocal Wave Transmission. (Issued 11/11/58.) 1959 * Traveling Wave Tube. (Issued 1/6/59.) * Direct View Storage Tube. (Issued 3/24/59.) * Backward Wave Tube. (Issued 6/16/59.) * Traveling Wave Tube. (Issued 7/14/59.) * Apparatus Utilizing Slalom Focusing. (Issued 8/11/59.) * Non-reciprocal Wave Transmission Device. (Issued 11/3/59.) * Backward Wave Amplifier. (Issued 12/8/59.) 1960 * Non-reciprocal Elements in Microwave Tubes. (Issued 1/26/60.) * Coaxial Couplers. (Issued 2/16/60.) * Pulse Coincidence Detecting Tube. (Issued 4/19/60.) * Electron Gun for Slalom Focusing Systems. (Issued 5/31/60.) * High Efficiency Velocity Modulation Devices. (Issued 8/16/60.) * Traveling Wave Tube. (Issued 10/4/60.) 1961 * Low Noise Amplifier. (Issued 2/14/61.) * High Frequency Amplifier. (Issued 2/21/61.) * Backward Wave Tube. (Issued 5/23/61.) * Elastic Wave Parametric Amplifier. (Issued 12/5/61.) 1962 * Parallel High Frequency Amplifier Circuits. (Issued 2/15/62.) * Scanning Horn-Reflector Antenna. (Issued 2/13/62.) * Microwave Filter. (Issued 6/26/62.) * Broadband Cyclotron Wave Parametric Amplifier. (Issued 8/28/62.) * High Frequency Generator. (Issued 12/4/62.) 1964 * Traveling Wave Light Modulator. (Issued 5/12/64.) * Artificial Scattering Elements for Use as Reflectors in Space Communication Systems. (Issued 9/29/64.) * Detector for Optical Communication System. (Issued 10/27/64.) 1965 * Beam Collector with Auxiliary Collector for Repelled or Secondarily-Emitted Electrons. (Issued 6 /8/65.) * Antenna System. (Issued 7/20/65.) * Sinusoidal-Shaped Lens for Light Wave Communication. (Issued 12/21/65.) * Transmission of Light Waves. (Issued 12/21/65.) 1966 * Optical Maser Amplifier. (Issued 5/24/66.) * Antenna System. (Issued 9/13/66.) * Triple Element S-Lens Focusing System. (Issued 11/15/66.) 1967 * Spherical Reflector Elastic Wave Delay Device with Planar Transducers. (Issued 5/2/67.) 1969 * Intracavity Image Converter. (Issued 7/8/69.) 1970 * Receiving Antenna Apparatus Compensated for Antenna Surface Irregularities. (Issued 1/13/70.) * Anti-Doppler Shift Antenna for Mobile Radio. (Issued 3/24/70.) * Multiple-Pass Light-Deflecting Modulator. (Issued 3/31/70.) * Multiple-Pass Light-Deflecting Modulator. (Issued 3/31/70.) * Optical Waveguide. (Issued 4/14/70.) * Time Division Multiplex Optical Transmission System. (Issued 4/l4/70.) * Digital Light Deflecting Systems. (Issued 6/2/70.) * Method and Apparatus for Obtaining 3-Dimensional Images from Recorded Standing Patterns. (Issued 7/14/70.) * Optical Heterodyne Receiver with Pulse Widening or Stretching. (Issued 9/22/70.) * Light Communication System with Improved Signal- to-Noise Ratio. (Issued 10/6/70.) 1977 * Method of and Apparatus for Acoustic Imaging. (Issued 3/15/77.)

References

* Oxford

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

External links

* , p. 4
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kompfner, Rudolf 1909 births 1977 deaths Austrian Jews British Jews British physicists American electrical engineers Austrian electrical engineers National Medal of Science laureates IEEE Medal of Honor recipients Jewish American scientists Scientists at Bell Labs Jews who immigrated to the United Kingdom to escape Nazism British electrical engineers Alumni of the University of Oxford Academics of the University of Birmingham 20th-century American engineers Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 20th-century American Jews