Electrical Circuit Modeling for Efficiency Improvement of Axial Virtual Cathode Oscillator

The virtual cathode oscillator (vircator), which is one of the microwave sources, has been widely studied for about 40 years, since it has advantages, such as its simple structure and high-power radiation. To implement the behavior of the vircator, a simulation model of the axial vircator using circuit elements is studied in this paper. There are two steps in simulation of this paper: 1) obtaining the optimized case in the fixed input power that has a maximum efficiency and 2) at the case, conducting the circuit modeling. Passive elements and switches are used to model the power losses, emission threshold, etc. This circuit analysis is simulated by the Electro Magnetic Transient Program. Through the simulation model of the axial vircator using circuit elements, the high-power electromagnetic system can be handled as an integrated system, which contains a prime power part, a pulsed power part, a microwave source part, etc. This means that the circuit analysis can be carried out from the prime power to the vircator.