Development of a wideband inductive output tube

Inductive output tubes (IOTs) employ emission gating to modulate the electron beam directly at the cathode surface. The high efficiency of these compact devices has motivated their use in UHF television broadcast and particle accelerators. The instantaneous bandwidth of broadcast IOTs is two percent (6 MHz). Many radar and communications applications - in which the linearity and efficiency of the IOT are highly desirable - require a significantly larger bandwidth. L-3 Electron Devices Division (EDD) is therefore developing a wideband IOT (WBIOT) which will provide output power levels suitable for UHF radar with a 1 dB bandwidth greater than ten percent.