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A staggered vane-shaped slot-line slow-wave structure (SV-SL SWS) for application in W-band traveling wave tubes (TWTs) is proposed in this article. In contrast to the conventional slot-line SWSs with dielectric substrates, the proposed SWS consists only of a thin metal sheet inscribed with periodic grooves and two half-metal enclosures, which means it can be easily manufactured and assembled and has the potential for mass production. This SWS not only solves the problem of the dielectric loading effect but also improves the heat dissipation capability of such structures. Meanwhile, the SWS design presented here covers a −15 dB S11 frequency range from 87.5 to 95 GHz. The 3-D simulation for a TWT based on the suggested SWS is also investigated. Under dual-electron injection conditions with a total voltage of 17.2 kV and a total current of 0.3 A, the maximum output power at 90 GHz is 200 W, with a 3 dB bandwidth up to 4 GHz. With a good potential for fabrication using microfabrication techniques, this structure can be a good candidate for millimeter-wave TWT applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel modified angular log-periodic folded waveguide slow wave structure (MALPFW-SWS) is proposed for high-gain traveling wave tubes (TWTs). Each unit of the MALPFW-SWS has different dispersion characteristics and thus it has the ability to suppress oscillations in TWTs. The dispersion equation of the MALPFW-SWS is derived and a Ka-band MALPFW-SWS is designed according to the dispersion equation for verification. The particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation indicated that the output signal is steady even the gain of the designed MALPFW-TWT reaches 40 dB. The frequency spectrum of the output signal also proved that the MALPFW-SWS can suppress oscillations. The cold test experiment results show that the transmission characteristics of the fabricated MALPFW-SWS are good and are in good agreement with the simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel slow wave structure (SWS), called double tunnel staggered grating (DTSG), which originates from the double staggered grating (DSG) and folded waveguide (FW), is proposed to develop a dual-beam traveling wave tube (TWT) with high power and electron efficiency in Terahertz (THz) band. Using two key techniques: (1) the rectangular holes are opened in the grating-ridges, and the operating mode is cut-off at holes; (2) specific grating-height, the DTSG-SWS possesses the wide operating band as DSG-SWS, high interaction impedance as the rectangular grating (RG) SWS, and good transmission characteristics as FW-SWS. In addition, it is not only suitable for the dual-beam TWT, but also is simple and easy of fabrication as DSG-SWS. The particle-in-cell simulation analysis confirms that the saturated power and electron efficiency of TWT using DTSG-SWS have been significantly improved compared with the TWT using DSG-SWS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to further improve the output power of W-band traveling wave tube (TWT), a low gain TWT was proposed as a secondary amplifier. It uses a double staggered grating slow wave structure (DSG-SWS) and a sheet beam. Firstly, the design of DSG-TWT was given. Through simulation, the DSG-TWT could provide a saturation output power of more than 1000 W in the frequency range of 93–97 GHz, and the maximum output power could reach 1200 W at 95 GHz. No oscillation and current interception were found. Then DSG-SWS was fabricated by E-plane partition method using high-precision CNC milling. The SWS was fed with a high-power input-output coupler which consists of a mode converter and an impedance transformer. Simulation and cold-test results were presented, showing that the S11 is less than −10 dB and the voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) is less than 2.0 in the frequency range of 93–100 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to alleviate the problem of achieving large powers beyond 10 kW at frequencies as high as 220 GHz, a two-stage, two-sheet-beam relativistic TWT (SBRTWT) was proposed. For one-stage SBRTWT, there exists instability phenomenon as the effect of electron noise will become large enough compared with the small input power. To avoid the effect, the gain of the first-stage tube was decreased, and its output power was employed to drive the second-stage tube. A large-width branch-guide energy coupler was proposed, analyzed and designed, which can solve the difficult problem to couple the amplified microwave from a wide waveguide to another wide waveguide. A two-beam SBRTWT of 70 kW output with a gain of 28.5 dB was predicted. The findings establish that the two-stage configuration provides larger output powers than the single-stage configuration of SBRTWT and call for further research in two-stage SBRTWT. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A novel slow wave structure (SWS) named angular log-periodic meander-line is proposed for a radial traveling wave tube (TWT). In this paper, a 30 log-periods microstrip angular log-periodic meander-line SWS is studied. The dispersion of this kind of SWS is weak, which shows that it can work in a wide operating bandwidth. The more important advantage is that the operating voltage is much lower than that of the conventional TWT at the same operating frequency and the geometrical dimension is also much smaller than that of the conventional TWT. The beam–wave interaction of the angular log-periodic meander-line TWT is calculated using the particle-in-cell method. When the operating voltage is 1624 V, this kind of TWT can give 156.5-W output power at 35 GHz, the gain is 21.9 dB, and the electron efficiency is \sim17.7\%. With this kind of TWT as mentioned, the concept of radial integrated angular log-periodic meander-line TWT is proposed, which can provide a new way to obtain higher output power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An attenuator supporting meander-line (ASML) slow wave structure (SWS) is proposed for a Ka-band traveling wave tube (TWT) and studied by simulations and experiments. The ASML SWS simplifies the fabrication and assembly process of traditional planar metal meander-lines (MLs) structures, by employing an attenuator to support the ML on the bottom of the enclosure rather than welding them together on the sides. To reduce the surface roughness of the molybdenum ML caused by laser cutting, the ML is coated by a thin copper film by magnetron sputtering. The measured S11 of the ML is below −20 dB and S21 varies around −8 dB to −12 dB without the attenuator, while below −40 dB with the attenuator. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation results show that with a 4.4-kV, 200-mA sheet electron beam, a maximum output power of 126 W is obtained at 38 GHz, corresponding to a gain of 24.1 dB and an electronic efficiency of 14.3%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]