Demonstration of a Multikilowatt, Solenoidally Focused Sheet Beam Amplifier at 94 GHz

A technological breakthrough is embodied in the successful demonstration of an extended interaction klystron (EIK) amplifier, which has produced over 7.5 kW of peak output power at W-band (94 GHz). An efficiency of ~17% has been achieved with a depressed collector. The EIK is driven by a 20-kV, 4-A sheet beam in a permanent magnet solenoid, with 99% beam current transmission from gun to collector. Key features that contribute to the success of this device are: tight beam focusing and correspondingly narrow beam tunnel, which are made possible by the solenoidal focusing and which provide high interaction impedance and high gain per unit length and the incorporation of design elements to stabilize the inherently over-moded circuit. Measured performance agrees well with 3-D particle-in-cell simulations.