Vacuum electronics development at Northrop Grumman [TWTs]

Summary form only given. The past decade has seen revolutionary advancements in traveling wave tube (TWT) performance, with single tube broadband TWTs having a 2-18 GHz bandwidth, and narrowband TWTs having efficiencies near 65%. The development of RF devices using cold cathode field emitter arrays as a replacement for the thermionic cathode is also underway. Millimeter wave TWTs show good performance between 18 and 40 GHz. Several cusp guns have been designed, built and tested, for operation in gyro devices at 35 and 94 GHz. Folded waveguide design and fabrication techniques for 100 GHz operation are also being conducted. Recent results of the above vacuum electronics development programs are presented.