Experimental verification of the multistage depressed collector design procedure for a high-perveance, helix-type, traveling-wave tube

The validity of a computational procedure for the design of multistage depressed collectors (MDC's) is demonstrated for a traveling wave tube (TWT) with a perveance of .00000123. The MDC is used with spent-beam refocusing to improve substantially the efficiency of the TWT. Reports on this subject have verified, under a variety of operating conditions, the MDC design procedure for TWT's with lower perveance. The design procedure is based on two computer programs that create a mathematical model of the electric and magnetic fields of the TWT refocuser MDC system and its electron beam. The two principal outputs of the analysis are a description of the radiofrequency (RF) performance of the TWT and the trajectories of representatives groups of charges from the input of the TWT to their points of interception on the MDC electrodes.