Development and Modeling of a V-Band Traveling-Wave Tube With a Microstrip Meander-Line Slow-Wave Structure

In this paper, we present the results aimed at development of a miniaturized traveling-wave tube (TWT) amplifier with a microstrip meander-line (MML) slow-wave structure (SWS) operating at V band. The MML SWS on quartz substrate was designed and fabricated using the technology based on laser ablation and magnetron sputtering. Cold-test electromagnetic parameters of the SWS are measured and compared with the simulations. An electron gun with high compression of a low-voltage (5 kV) sheet electron beam is designed and beam transmission in a uniform magnetic field is studied. Hot-test operation of the TWT is simulated by a 3-D particle-in-cell (PIC) code. The simulations predict small-signal gain of 28 dB and nearly 14 W saturated power.