Abstract
In this paper, a design, fabrication and cold test of a high efficiency folded groove waveguide (FGW) for w-band (85~110GHz) sheet beam traveling wave tube (TWT) is proposed. One stage phase velocity taper (OSPVT) was used in the FGW to enhance the electronic efficiency of a millimeter-wave sheet beam TWT. The OSPVT was realized via a change of the period of the FGW. Three FGWs with and without OSPVT were fabricated and their measured s-parameters demonstrate good transmission characteristics and wide bandwidth. Moreover, wave dispersions and phase velocities of the unchanged and OSPVT FGWs were obtained from measured transmission phases. 3-D particle-in-cell simulations of beam-wave interaction predicted that the proposed TWT with an OSPVT of twenty half periods could output a saturated power of 240 W at 95 GHz, which is about 70 W higher than the case of without OSPVT. Meanwhile, the application of the OSPVT improves the electronic efficiency in the whole operating frequency range of 85~110 GHz, with a maximum efficiency enhancement of about 47% in the vicinity of 95 GHz.
High power, wide bandwidth, high efficiency and high frequency electromagnetic radiation sources are in urgent demand, especially when the operating frequencies increase into the millimeter wave and terahertz range
However, high power amplifiers in sub-terahertz and terahertz frequency ranges are still lacking. A slow wave structure (SWS) is a core component of TWT devices and plays a crucial role in their performances, whilst also playing an important role in other large facilities such as linear synchrotron radiation light source
In order to further improve TWT’s performance in power, efficiency and bandwidth in the millimeter-wave and terahertz band, one stage phase velocity taper (OSPVT) was studied and applied to a Folded Groove Waveguide (FGW) TWT for the first time in this paper. The technique could be considered to be a simple version of Dynamic Velocity Technology (DVT) which has been used in the helix TWT
The article is composed as follows. Section 1 contains the theoretical analysis of the phase velocity of the wave in FGWs and the principle of DVT. Section 2 presents the manufacture of the FGWs and their measured transmission and dispersion characteristics. The simulated performance of a high power millimeter-wave FGW-TWT exploiting OSPVT is presented in Section 3. Finally a brief summary is given in this paper.
A schematic diagram of the FGW with sheet electron beam is shown in

Fig. 1 The schematic diagram of the FGW with sheet electron beam present.
图1 带状电子束曲折槽波导示意图
Suppose the half-period of the FGW is P0, which was designed to support a wave of an appropriate phase velocity Vp0 to efficiently interact with an electron beam with velocity U0. After electrons loosing enough energy their reduced velocity would be no longer in synchronism with the wave, and hence, wave growth would stop. However, at that moment if the phase velocity of the wave is adjusted to a degree so that it continues to match with the reduced electron velocity, then interaction could in principle continue to extract energy from the electrons and wave continue to grow, hence, improve the electron efficiency of the TWT. In this paper the phase velocity of the electromagnetic wave is changed once by changing the half-period of the latter part of the FGW once, i.e. OSPVT, in the operating frequency. This extends the synchronous condition between the wave and the electron beam, transferring more energy from electrons to wave, hence improving the output power and electronic efficiency. When taking no account of the corner reflection and coupling between adjacent grooves, the analysis of the dispersion of the FGW is similar to that of an FW. The unchanged FGW has a curved groove length and a half period . The OSPVT FGW has a curved groove length and a half period. The length of the straight part is set to be s and defining the phase constant of the fundamental mode and its nth spatial harmonic the phase velocity of the fundamental mode and its nth spatial harmonic , then the following equations could be derived.
, | (1) |
. | (2) |
In
, | (3) |
here c is velocity of light, from
, | (4) |
here is pierce velocity paramete
Hence, by properly adjusting the phase velocity of the wave in the latter part of the FGW, the synchronous condition between the wave and electron velocity could maintain.
As satellite communications plan to use w-band in the near future, a high power high efficiency folded groove waveguide millimeter-wave TWT based on OSPVT was designed (85~110 GHz).

(a)

(b)
Fig. 2 (a) A photo showing the upper and lower half of the FGWs with in/out-puts, (b) setup for the cold test of the FGWs.
图2 (a) 带有输入输出结构的曲折槽波导上下部件照片, (b) 曲折槽波导冷测实验装置
The setup for the cold test of the FGWs with and without OSPVT sections is shown in

Fig. 3 The simulated and measured s-parameters of the FGW.图3仿真和测试曲折槽波导的S参数
The electric field in the FGW is similar to that of TE11 mode in the circular waveguide. The measured wrapped phase of the operating mode in three FGWs is shown in

Fig. 4 Tests of transfer phase versus frequency.图4.测试传输相位随频率变化

Fig. 5 Measured and simulated phase velocities for FGWs with period P0 and P1.
图5 测试和仿真不同半周期(P0 /P1.)曲折槽波导的相速度
In order to evaluate the performance of OSPVT, a high power high efficiency FGW millimeter-wave TWT based on OSPVT technology was designed, and it was simulated by using CST particle studio. According to the measured transmission loss a conductivity of 3.6*1

(a)

(b)
Fig. 6 (a) Simulation model of 14 half periods OSPVT based on the PIC, (b) the bunching electron beam in FGW with 14 half periods OSPVT.
图6 (a) 14个半周期带有OSPVT的PIC仿真模型,(b) 电子束群聚图

Fig. 7 Power transfer curves at 95 GHz for FGWs of different length of OSPVT
图7 不同相速跳变长度在频点95 GHz处对应输出功率曲线

Fig. 8 Saturated output power and electron efficiency versus frequency
图8 饱和输出功率和电子效率随频率变化
In this article, an FGW millimeter-wave traveling wave tube based on OSPVT was proposed. A combination of three FGWs with and without OSPVT section, each with the same input and output couplers was fabricated. The s-parameter measurements using VNA and simulations of these FGWs OSPVT demonstrated good transmission characteristics and wide bandwidth. Simulations predicted that the saturated power and electron efficiency were significantly improved by the application OSPVT in the operating frequency of 85~110 GHz. It is possible that the electronic efficiency of a TWT could be further improved by more sophisticated phase velocity change techniques such as DVT and multiple stage phase velocity change, which will be studied in the future.
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