Twin Growth in RF Window Ceramic as a Criterion for the Response Time of Protection System in High Power Vacuum Tubes

The ceramic fracture in output RF window is one of the most important failure factors in high power microwave sources. Fast protection systems are used to protect the source. The methods for determining the required protection response time are conservative and rough. In this paper, an investigation is presented about the twin growth in the ceramic of RF window in faulty condition. It is shown that the twin growth in ceramic can be a reliable figure of merit for the response time calculation of the microwave source protection system.