A Self-Biasing Pulsed Depressed Collector

Depressed collectors have been utilized successfully for many years to improve the electrical efficiency of vacuum electron devices. Increasingly, pulsed, high-peak power accelerator applications are placing a premium on electrical efficiency. As RF systems are responsible for a large percentage of the overall energy usage at accelerator laboratories, methods to improve upon the state-of-the-art in pulsed high-power sources are desired. This paper presents a technique for self-biasing the stages in a multistage depressed collector. With this technique, the energy lost during the rise and fall times of the pulse can be recovered, separate power supplies are not needed, and existing modulators can be retrofitted. Calculations show that significant cost savings can be realized with the implementation of this device in high-power systems. In this paper, the technique is described along with experimental demonstration.