A wideband electron-bombarded-semiconductor amplifier

The development of a wideband deflection modulated EBS amplifier is described. The device uses an electron beam of rectangular cross section which is modulated by a traveling wave deflector and bombards a pair of reverse biased, silicon diodes to provide a balanced, class A, push-pull output. A linear transfer characteristic is obtained by adjustment of the beam current density profile. With a 100 ohm load per side the device has a signal voltage gain of 40 and gives a linear output of 8 V with a risetime of 220 ps (1.6 GHz bandwidth).