Advanced electron guns and depressed collectors design and optimization using the MICHELLE / ANALYST Environment

Next generation vacuum electron devices under development for millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths are often characterized by very small features that must be very precisely designed and manufactured for proper tube function and longevity. In this regime the need for automated physics-based optimization to aid the designer in meeting device performance specifications is much more critical than in larger, lower frequency devices where prototyping and experimentation are more readily performed. Recent work has been done on improving the ability of modeling and design simulation environments to aid the designer in finding optimum configurations. As the simulation tools have improved to enable first-pass design success in some cases, the potential benefits of optimization techniques become even more significant. This paper discusses methods for optimization of electron guns as well as multistage depressed collectors.