Numerical design of a 100Â W, 38Â dB gain, W-band multi-section serpentine waveguide vacuum electronic TWT

The serpentine waveguide circuit is a robust beam-wave interaction circuit for W-band TWTs. Here presented the electromagnetic properties and design methodology for W-band multi-section SWG traveling wave tube. Cold-test (in absence of electron beam) numerical design performed theoretically and further optimized/validated with standard simulation code to predict the dispersion, interaction impedance, ohmic-loss and small-signal gain. Numerical simulation for the quarter wave transformer couplers with SWG circuit geometry shown the return-loss less than −20 dB for the 5% frequency band. Later, in systematic manner, hot-test (in presence of electron beam) numerical design performed for multi-section TWT by using standard particle-in-cell 3-D simulation code. The three section, 60 periods SWG TWT predicted peak radiation power 130 W at target frequency 94 GHz, 39.5 dB saturated gain, 5.3% instantaneous 3-dB frequency bandwidth, and 6.5% electronic efficiency.