Development and Operation of a 650 GHz Folded Waveguide Source

Northrop Grumman Corp. has fabricated and demonstrated a vacuum electronic (VE) device based on a folded waveguide (FWG) circuit which operates between 600 and 675 GHz. Output powers up to 16 mW at duty cycles up to 1% and a source efficiency of 0.08% have been demonstrated. Development continues toward increasing the source efficiency by improving beam transmission and incorporating a depressed collector to recover a significant fraction of the spent beam energy.