High Power Wide Bandwidth Harmonic Gyro-TWT Amplifier

Design work for a proof-of-principle harmonic gyrotron traveling wave tube (gyro-TWT) amplifier experiment will be carried out. The designed amplifier is expected to generate an output power above 1 MW over a wide frequency bandwidth in Ka-band. Innovative design approaches will be taken to ensure the stability of the high power amplifier. Both the interaction circuit and the guiding axial magnetic field will be tapered for broadband amplification. Potential performance improvement with distributed loss wall will also be examined. Working at a harmonic of the electron cyclotron frequency, the required magnetic field intensity and the magnet weight can be reduced accordingly. Major components for the gyro-TWT amplifier will be identified and designed. Feasibility for further increasing the output power of gyro-TWTs over a broad bandwidth will be studied and the success of this proposed work will be the first step towards that direction. Broadband high power amplifiers have great benefits for high resolution radar, communication systems and "smart" microwave weapons. This research will further these goals.