Development of a low voltage power booster TWT for a Q-band MMPM

Summary form only given, as follows. Compact millimeter wave amplifiers with output powers ranging from around 20 to 100 W are required for a number of important military and commercial applications. This paper describes the design of a miniature, low voltage, vacuum power booster TWT for a Q-band millimeter wave power module (MMPM). Operating at 7.7 kV and 120 mA, an output power goal of 40 W CW has been established for the Q-band TWT. Beam confinement and focus is provided using an optimized samarium cobalt periodic permanent magnet (PPM) stack. Output power is transmitted through a stepped Chebyshev waveguide transformer to a 0.020 inch alumina ceramic output window. Good overall device efficiency is achieved through the use of a 3 stage depressed collector. The results of recent experimental tests at reduced beam power demonstrating 10 W CW at 44 GHz are presented, as well as ongoing work on device modeling and simulation.