Diamond-Studded Helical Traveling Wave Tube

Abstract

A novel method of millimeter-wave traveling wave tube (TWT) slow-wave circuit fabrication, employing laser micromachining and the in situ growth of diamond studs as an insulating dielectric, has been developed, which would enable a new class of very wideband, low distortion, high-efficiency amplifiers. Because the slow-wave circuit is supported by an array of diamond studs, rather than the conventional dielectric rods, we have named this novel device the diamond-studded TWT. Diamond strips have been successfully grown on a molybdenum tube and a diamond-studded helix has been produced using laser micromachining. Computer analysis of the slow-wave structure indicate that this fabrication technique leads naturally to a circuit with nearly flat dispersion over a frequency range, in some configurations, of more than four octaves. Typically, wide bandwidth can only be achieved by reducing efficiency; however, this fabrication technique increases the interaction impedance of the circuit, enabling high efficiency operation without sacrificing bandwidth. The very low dispersion also results in a coupling impedance that is relatively insensitive to frequency that may enable low reflection coupling over a wide frequency band. The resulting slow-wave circuit is essentially a brazed structure and, therefore, inherently robust thermally and mechanically. The manufacturing technology being pursued is applicable to any millimeter-wave helical or helix-derived TWT.