High performance TWT development for the microwave power module

Summary form only given, as follows. Northrop Grumman´s ongoing development of microwave power modules (MPM) provides microwave power at various power level, frequencies, and bandwidths for a variety of applications including radar, communications, and ECM. Present day requirements for the vacuum power booster traveling wave tubes of the microwave power module are becoming increasingly more demanding, necessitating the need for further enhancement of tube performance. The MPM development program at Northrop Grumman is designed specifically to meet this need by construction and test of a series of new tubes aimed at verifying computation and reaching high efficiency design goals. Tubes under test incorporate several different helix designs, as well as varying electron gun and magnetic confinement configurations. Current efforts also include further development of state-of-the-art TWT modeling and computational methods at Northrop Grumman incorporating new, more accurate models into existing design tools and developing new tools to be used in all aspects of traveling wave tube design. These tools include small signal modeling of TWTs in the linear gain regime, large signal particle interaction modeling, beam/circuit coupling impedance determination, and electron optics computation for optimal gun and collector design. Many of the tools under consideration are tools incorporated into the Microwave/Millimeter-wave Advanced Computational Environment (MMACE) framework.The current status of the Northrop Grumman MPM TWT development program is presented.