Coining manufacturing process for high power TWTs and TWTAs

Summary form only given. Today's industry requires higher power and frequency to meet increasing demands. Heat shrink and cold shrink are the best current manufacturing methods to assemble circuit assembly to barrel assembly to ensure quality. However, the coining process has interesting potential for manufacturing high power TWTs because the process greatly reduces production time and increases yield. Power fade is no longer a problem. TWTs have been successfully developed using the coining process at 10 W, 26.5/spl sim/40 GHz. Current development is at 30 W, 30 GHz/spl plusmn/100 MHz with no power fade as a result of more efficient heat transfer from the traveling wave tube (TWT) to the base plate. The goal is to develop a TWT at 50 W, 26.5/spl sim/40 GHz.