Thermal and structural modeling of high efficient multi-stage depressed collector for space applications

Increasing requirement of traveling-wave tubes (TWTs) with miniature size, less weight, high efficiency, high power, etc increases complexity of TWT packaging for thermal modeling. Two-third of the total power consumption of a typical TWT is dissipated in the collector. The rise in temperature due to the dissipated power in the collector has to be drained out efficiently without creating any hot spots. This paper discusses temperature distribution and deformation in the collector electrodes using different materials in a multi-stage depressed collector (MDC) during operation for typical space applications.