Computer-Aided Design and Optimization of High Performance Vacuum Electronic Devices

High performance vacuum electron devices are widely used radar, communications, sensors, and navigation systems, where they provide an efficient and reliable source of microwave power. For many applications it is extremely important that the device be optimized to provide improvements in efficiency, power, and tolerance insensitivity, which significantly impact system performance, lifetime, reliability, and cost. Modern stochastic optimization strategies provide a powerful approach to obtaining an optimal design in a variety of disciplines. To be effective in vacuum electronics design, however, appropriate methods must be identified, supporting technology such as adaptive mesh refinement techniques must be improved, and tools must be better integrated. A prototype design system will be built to address this need and used to study optimization and adaptive mesh refinement methods for application to the CHRISTINE and MICHELLE codes. The system will extend the existing MICHELLE user interface and integrate other existing components to minimize development work, and be applied to the gun and slow-wave circuit of a traveling wave tube. A successful project will establish the viability of the system architecture and develop technical options for optimization and adaptive mesh refinement that will be valuable for the Navy, and be the focus of future research.