Commercial cyclotron systems used for 18F−production through 18O (p, n) 18F reaction face several conflicting requirements that include: reliability/uptime, quantity of consumables, safety, cost and yield. With commercialization of PET tracer distribution, higher yield has become one of the most important requirements. Maximizing yield for commercial cyclotrons require engineering trade‐off amongst several requirements, and often, to be conservative, significant design margin is kept while field feedback is collected. With maturing of technology, substantial experience has been obtained for a commercial cyclotron (PETtrace, GE Medical Systems), which is in use for several years. In this paper, we describe key elements of PETtrace commercial cyclotron technology undergoing enhancements, and share our works‐in‐progress experiments in performing critical engineering trade‐offs to improve 18F−yield. Three key parameters were tuned in this study within the design margin of the current equipment. First, we designed a second‐generation target assembly with optimized 18O water volume for accepting increased beam currents while maintaining cooling performance. Second, we increased the beam current of the ion source. And finally, a new RF driver amplifier was designed to enhance the RF power ratings to enable higher beam currents. Initial tests performed in the factory indicate substantially higher yield performance (> 50&percent;) reaching a peak yield of over 4 Ci per hour of bombardment in the new target. On dual targets, this extrapolates to 13.5 Ci/2hr of bombardment for a total target current of 120 &mgr;A. A target current of 100 &mgr;A is available in the existing design thus providing an 18F−production capacity exceeding 11 Ci/2hr. The preliminary experimental results are promising and illustrate successful exploitation of design margin to achieve increased yield for a commercial cyclotron. Long‐term studies to assess impact on life of ion source are underway along with a dedicated effort for achieving target currents in the excess of 120&mgr;A. © 2003 American Institute of Physics