Design and test of a low voltage suspended dual-microstrip meander-line slow wave structure at Ka band

A suspended dual-microstrip meander-line???SDMML???slow wave structure???SWS???was proposed.Itconsists of a metal enclosure as well as a suspended dielectric substrate???on the upper and lower surfaces of whichare two metal meander-lines.As there are two electron beam tunnels locating above and below the dielectric sub???strate???and the electromagnetic wave has symmetrical distribution???it is possible to use one electron beam in eachtunnel to drive the electromagnetic wave for a higher output power.The high frequency characteristics and thebeam-wave interaction results of the SDMML SWS have been investigated by using simulation software.The hotperformances of this SWS show that for two identical sheet beams with a voltage of2050V and a current of0.2A???the SDMML SWS has a maximum gain of26dB at36GHz and3-dB bandwidth of saturation power of8GHz.To verify the simulation result???a SDMML SWS is fabricated by using new fabrication methods includingthe magnetron sputtering electroplate and laser ablation.The measured reflection loss of the SDMML SWS is bet???ter than-10dB.The transmission loss of the fabricated slow wave structure is analyzed and verified through simu???lation and experimental results