Development of a 200 kW traveling wave tube at Ku-band

The purpose of this paper is to describe the current status of our program aimed toward the development of a Ku-band tube capable of providing 200 KW of peak power at a duty cycle of .015. This tube utilizes periodic permanent magnet focusing and weighs less than 30 pounds. Aside from the state-of-the-art achievement in peak and average power out for this type device, other major features are the gridded electron gun, a saturated gain, of 60 dB, and a depressed collector for efficiency enhancement. The tube operates at a cathode voltage of-80 kV and utilizes a post-acceleration anode for achieving both a high area convergence ratio and reliable high voltage operation. The major design and operating parameters will be discussed. In addition, the characteristics of protective devices required for reliable operation of this tube will be presented.