Development of high power gyro-amplifiers at Ka-band and W-band for radar applications

Potential applications for millimeter wave radar include high resolution imaging, precision tracking and cloud physics studies. For most of the applications in the millimeter wave band the relatively high atmospheric absorption necessitates the use of high power sources. In addition, many of the applications call for extended instantaneous bandwidth. Recent investigations at Naval Research Laboratory have been focused on enhancement of the power-bandwidth product in millimeter wave gyro-amplifiers. Both gyroklystron and gyrotwystron type circuits have been investigated to achieve this goal.