High-power traveling wave tubes powered by a relativistic electron beam

Miscellaneous · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:5631040

Shiffler, Jr, D A

This thesis presents the results of a high power traveling wave tube a high power, rippled wall waveguide TWT powered by a relativistic electron beam. Initially, the amplifiers consisted of a single section of slow wave structure. Two TWT's of this type were used, with lengths of 11 and 22 periods. These single state tubes were linear and operated in the Tm{sub 01} mode at maximum gains of 33 dB and bandwidths on order of 20 MHz centered at 8.76 GHz. The maximum efficiency was 11% corresponding to an output power of 110 MW. Below beam currents of 1.4 kA, the single stage tubes were monochromatic and phase stable to within {plus minus}8{degree}; however, above this current, a sideband-like structure developed in the frequency spectrum. The two sidebands were unequally displaced from the center frequency. As the current was increased still further to 1.6 kA, the single stage amplifier oscillated due to positive feedback arising from reflections at the exit taper of the TWT. At this point, the TWT was no longer useful as an amplifier. To reduce the positive feedback and stop the oscillations, the author severed the amplifier. Two different lengths of sever were used, the shorter of the two having the highest gain. The shorter sever saturated at 975 A, with a total gain of 37 dB and total power output of 410 MW. Beyond this current, the tube was no longer linear with respect to the input power. The bandwidth of severed tube was about 100 MHz centered at 8.76 GHz. The severed amplifiers showed the sideband-like behavior at all the beam currents used. The sideband frequency separation from the center frequency increased with beam current.

• Research Organization: Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5631040
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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TRAVELLING WAVE TUBES
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EFFICIENCY
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POWER RANGE 100-1000 MW
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426000* - Engineering- Components
Electron Devices & Circuits- (1990-)