Together with the Budker Institute in Novosibirsk, the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics in Moscow, and partners in Germany, Siemens is developing a high-performance generator for linear particle accelerators. The heart of the new generator is transistors made from the semiconductor material silicon carbide – a chemical compound of silicon and carbon. This is the key element for future construction of powerful linear accelerators that are substantially smaller and more compact. These transistors operate at up to ten times higher frequencies in the range of several hundred megahertz (MHz) – from 300 MHz, they are referred to as microwaves. The researchers hope that large systems that today need to be up to 100 meters long will be able to be shrunk down to approximately a quarter of their current size.