The design and performance of a new 4-megawatt, 10-DB gain amplitron

The Amplitron discussed in this paper is a crossed-field, backward-wave, traveling-wave tube amplifier of cylindrical cross section in contrast to longitudinal traveling-wave tubes. The design objective was to produce an Amplitron with 4 megw of peak power output, a gain of 10 db, and with high efficiency over a frequency range of 1250-1350 mc. In order to keep both the anode structure and cathode reasonably small, it was decided to use a minimum of 70 kv of dc potential. Experimentally it turned out that 87 to 92 kv of dc potential with magnetic fields of 1700 to 1900 gauss produced the desired output power and gain with over-all efficiency of 62 to 65 per cent.