Design of Helix Pitch Profile for Broadband Traveling-Wave Tubes

Author

Ghosh, Tushar K. ; Challis, Anthony J. ; Jacob, Alan ; Bowler, Darrin

Author_Institution

e2v Technol. Ltd., Chelmsford

Volume

56

Issue

5

fYear

2009

fDate

5/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1135

Lastpage

1140

Abstract

To improve the performance of a broadband traveling-wave tube (TWT), a helix pitch profile incorporating a section with reduced phase velocity followed by a positive phase-velocity taper is used. A simple technique to design a pitch profile of this kind is elaborated upon and later applied to an existing 6-18-GHz uniform pitch mini-TWT to improve its interaction efficiency. By using the newly designed helix, a TWT is developed, which shows increases in electronic efficiency and output power up to 8.75% points and 2.6 dB (75 W), respectively. Further application of this method to another uniform pitch baseline tube results in similar improvements.

Keywords

microwave tubes; travelling wave tubes; TWT; broadband traveling-wave tubes; electronic efficiency; helix pitch profile; positive phase-velocity taper; uniform pitch baseline tube; Blades; Broadband amplifiers; Electron beams; Electronic countermeasures; Electronic warfare; Jacobian matrices; Narrowband; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Radar countermeasures; Broadband amplifiers; helix taper; phase-velocity tapering; pitch optimization; traveling-wave tube (TWT);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2009.2015137

Filename

4806089