A gyrotron-traveling-wave tube amplifier experiment with a ceramic loaded interaction region

Author

Garven, Morag ; Calame, J.P. ; Danly, Bruce G. ; Nguyen, Khanh T. ; Levush, Baruch ; Wood, F.N. ; Pershing, Dean E.

Author_Institution

Vacuum Electron. Branch, US Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC, USA

Volume

30

Issue

3

fYear

2002

fDate

6/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

885

Lastpage

893

Abstract

The design and experimental study of a 35-GHz gyrotron-traveling-wave tube (gyro-TWT) amplifier operating in the circular TE₀₁ mode at the fundamental cyclotron harmonic are presented. The interaction circuit in this experiment consisted of a new type of ceramic loading that provided the required loss for stable operation. A saturated peak power of 137 kW was measured at 34.1 GHz, corresponding to a saturated gain of 47.0 dB and an efficiency of 17%, with a -3-dB bandwidth of 1.11 GHz (3.3%). Peak output powers in the range of 102.1 to 148.6 kW with -3-dB bandwidths of 1.26 and 0.94 GHz, respectively, were measured by varying the operating parameters. The gyro-TWT was found to be zero-drive stable at these operating points, demonstrating that ceramic loading is a highly effective means of suppressing spurious oscillations in gyro-TWTs. This type of ceramic loading has the added advantage of being compatible with high average power operation.

Keywords

ceramics; gyrotrons; millimetre wave amplifiers; travelling wave amplifiers; travelling wave tubes; 137 kW; 17 percent; 34.1 GHz; 35 GHz; 47.0 dB; bandwidth; ceramic loaded interaction region; ceramic loading; circular TE₀₁ mode; efficiency; gyro-traveling wave tube; gyrotron-traveling-wave tube amplifier; high average power operation; millimeter-wave amplifier; operating parameters; peak output powers; saturated gain; saturated peak power; spurious oscillations suppression; zero-drive stable gyro-TWT; Bandwidth; Ceramics; Gain; High power amplifiers; Laboratories; Millimeter wave radar; Power generation; Power system harmonics; Tellurium; Thermal conductivity;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2002.801650

Filename

1158320