Study on an X-Band Sheet Beam Meander-Line SWS

Abstract

The miniaturized traveling wave tube (TWT) is a kind of high-efficiency, high-power, long-lifetime power amplifier which is an attractive choice for many applications, such as outer space exploration, phased array radar detection, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication, and on-chip application. In this article, a sheet beam miniaturized TWT with V-shaped meander-line slow wave structure (SWS) supported by two trapezoidal ceramic rods is designed. First, the dispersion characteristics, the impedance characteristics, and the S-parameters of the V-shaped meander-line SWS are analyzed in detail. Then, the particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation results predict that the TWT can produce 512-W output power driven by a 7.1 kV, 0.3-A sheet beam with a rectangular cross-sectional area of 3.5 mm $\times0.1$ mm. The TWT can cover the whole ${X}$ -band when the operation voltage shift from 7.1 to 9.1 kV. At last, the V-shaped meander-line SWS is manufactured, assembled, and tested. The good agreement between the simulated and the measured ${S} _{\mathbf {11}}$ has been achieved and the mismatch between the simulated and the measured ${S} _{\mathbf {21}}$ has been discussed at the end.