Improved Packaging and Thermal Management for High Power Electronics and Solid State Lasers

TWTs are the amplifier of choice for various radar, electronics countermeasure techniques and other high power communication hardware. One of the biggest challenges with TWTs is the cooling of the waste heat. A large amount of power is dissipated at the collector end of the TWTA and that needs to be conducted to a heat sink at the base of the plate on which the TWT assembly is mounted. Since most of the heat is generated at the collector which is at the far end of the TWTA, the heat density is very high which makes the cooling problem very challenging. In this STTR, kTC proposes to use a high conductivity aluminum graphite composite material to make the base of the TWT itself. This can result in significantly superior spreading, reducing the heat flux from the TWT, thus making its cooling significantly easier. Furthermore, the proposed scheme will save weight and will be a drop-in replacement for the current and future TWT assemblies.