Computational Design of Asymmetric Electron Beam Devices

Three-dimensional design codes are allowing the development of more complex electron beam devices with significant performance improvements over axially symmetric devices. Distributed beam RF devices, including multiple-beam and sheet-beam designs, allow significant reduction in operating voltage with improved efficiency and bandwidth. The increased parameter space, however, makes the design process extremely complicated and costly. This paper describes optimization techniques to automate the most time-consuming tasks of the design, which is searching the available parameter space to optimize performance. Both sheet-beam and multiple-beam designs are considered.