Development of linear traveling wave tubes for telecommunications applications

Traveling wave tubes (TWTs) designed for telecommunications applications in multichannel power amplifiers (MCPAs) are required to have high linearity, low intermodulation distortion, high efficiency and high power outputs. The linearity of the TWT can be greatly improved by operation of the tube significantly backed off from saturation and by optimization of the design of the helix circuit. This results in two tone intermodulation products that are 25 to 40 dB below the carrier level, depending on the amount of back-off selected. However, operation backed off from saturation results in a greatly reduced efficiency of the TWT, which must be compensated for by optimal circuit and collector design. Several L-band and S-band Hughes TWTs have been developed for telecommunications applications and feature saturated power levels of up to 2 kW and average power of over 600 W with overall efficiencies of over 20% at 10 dB back-off and 40% at 6 dB back-off. These tubes provide high average power, high efficiency amplification with modest size and reduced cooling requirements compared to solid state amplifiers.