Commitments and Contingencies - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	1 Months Ended		3 Months Ended		6 Months Ended		12 Months Ended		3 Months Ended		6 Months Ended
	Oct. 31, 2013	Sep. 30, 2011	Mar. 28, 2014	Mar. 29, 2013	Mar. 28, 2014	Mar. 29, 2013	Sep. 28, 2012	Sep. 27, 2013	Jun. 27, 2014 Subsequent Event	Mar. 28, 2014 Cercla sites and one past facility	Mar. 28, 2014 Cercla sites and one past facility Minimum Y	Mar. 28, 2014 Cercla sites and one past facility Maximum Y	Mar. 28, 2014 Other sites	Mar. 28, 2014 Other sites Minimum Y	Mar. 28, 2014 Other sites Maximum Y	Mar. 28, 2014 Siemens AG Strategic Global Partnership
Commitments And Contingencies [Line Items]
Long term accrued product warranty costs			$ 2,700,000		$ 2,700,000			$ 14,100,000
Loan facility to CPTC		165,300,000
Varian's participation under the CPTC loan facility		115,300,000
Fixed fee committed																10,000,000
License fee committed																20,000,000
Outstanding fixed fee commitment																7,000,000
Accrual of fixed fees during the period																1,000,000
Amount payable related to license fees																0
Percentage of manufacturing capacity	50.00%
Percentage of fixed costs	50.00%				50.00%
Fixed Cost Commitments					8,600,000
Environmental cleanup costs, third-party claim costs, project management costs and legal costs			300,000	200,000	500,000	400,000
Estimated environmental remediation costs, minimum										1,900,000			6,000,000
Estimated environmental remediation costs, maximum										9,800,000			35,600,000
Amount accrued for environmental remediation expense										1,900,000			9,200,000
Estimated time frames to resolve contingency related to environmental remediation contingencies, years											1	30		1	30
Estimated environmental remediation costs, best estimate, undiscounted													11,900,000
Discount rate for environmental remediation costs, net of inflation													4.00%
Receivables of past and future environmental-related expenditures			2,200,000		2,200,000			2,400,000
Actual damages found by jury							40,000,000
Court ordered amount							102,000,000
Enhanced damages							80,000,000
Prejudgment interest to the damages award							13,000,000
Attorneys' fee added to the judgment							9,000,000
Payment to be made to University of Pittsburgh									35,000,000
Loss Contingency Accrual			5,000,000		5,000,000
Litigation settlement			25,130,000		25,130,000
Prepaid Royalties									5,000,000
Payments for restructuring charges			$ 0	$ 2,600,000	$ 0	$ 6,700,000