A staggered double-vane slow-wave structure with double sheet electron beams for 340 GHz traveling wave tube

An improved slow-wave structure (SWS) for a 340 GHz traveling wave tube (TWT) is proposed. The dispersion curve and transmission characteristics of SWS have been calculated and analyzed. The transmission and reflection of the RF structure are S21 > −7 dB and S11 < −16 dB, respectively. Two sheet electron beams with identical physical parameters are used to control the operation of a TWT. In addition, the output power, gain, and bandwidth of the TWT were studied using three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation method. A uniform constant magnetic field with the magnetic field density of 0.2 T is used to focus the sheet electron beam. The results of the PIC simulations show that the TWT achieves the maximum output power of 12 W and the 3 dB bandwidth of 25 GHz (328–353 GHz) at the input power of 10 mW. At 340 GHz, the output power of 12 W and the gain of 30.8 dB are obtained.