CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Microwave Technology

Microwave technology is the backbone of the modern communication field. Ever since the discovery of electromagnetic waves by Heinrich Hertz in 1864, scientists and engineers around the world have sought ways to rein in the electromagnetic spectrum. The spectrum of frequencies is as shown in Figure 1.1. The microwave frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum ranges from 0.3 GHz to 300 GHz. Most of the modern communication devices like mobile phones, Wi-Fi enabled internet, home appliances like modern day digital television systems, microwave cooking, direct TV, GPS, etc., harness microwaves. Even in the field of design of microelectronic circuits, the knowledge of microwaves is essential for successful high speed operations of those devices.

Figure 1.1 Electromagnetic wave spectrum Source: W.L.Menninger, Relativistic Harmonic Gyrotron Traveling-Wave Tube Amplifier Experiments, PhD Thesis, pp. 14,MIT, Sep 1994.

Although the work on microwaves existed before 1930, it was only during the world war II that the fascination towards the microwave systems augmented with the development of advance radar and warfare weaponry. The development of microwave system includes the development of microwave sources, radars and attack weaponry. After World War II, large range of microwave sources and applications were developed. Figure 1.2 shows the operating frequency range of the different types of microwave devices. Microwave devices include Klystrons, Backward wave oscillators, Travelling wave tubes, Gyrotrons etc.

Figure 1.2 Operating frequency range of different microwave devices Source: V. L. Granatstein, R. K. Parker and C. M. Armstrong, "Vacuum electronics at the dawn of the twenty-first century," Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 87, pp. 702-716, 1999.

Travelling Wave Tube (TWT) is the most versatile microwave broadband high power amplifier used in applications like terrestrial communications, radar and aerospace communications. The TWT is still widely used despite the fact that Integrated Circuit (IC) technology is advancing all the time. The traveling wave tube, TWT, has a high bandwidth compared to many other high power devices and it can operate over bands of up to an octave. The TWT is essentially a microwave amplifier and TWT amplifiers may be used at frequencies ranging from around 300 MHz up to 1 THz and gain levels ranging between 30 to 60 dB. TWT amplifiers have the capability of delivering RF output power from 10 W up to 1MW compared to the microwave solid state devices with output power ranging between few mWs to 10 kW. The importance of TWT compared to other microwave devices is illustrated in Figure 1.3.
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Figure 1.3 Frequency and power capabilities of Amplifier technologies. Source: B.Coaker, T.Challis, Travelling Wave Tubes: Modern Devices and Contemporary Applications, Microwave Journal, pp, 32 48, Oct, 2008.

The TWT was actually invented and first developed by an engineer named by Rudolf Kompfner at a government funded British radar research laboratory. He developed the basic TWT theory and the practical device. Both the TWT theory and the tube itself were later refined by Kompfner and John Pierce at Bell Laboratories in the USA. TWTs are so important for the reason; they are the only electron devices capable of supplying the proper combination of high output power and bandwidth needed for microwave and satellite communications. Modern travelling wave tubes are extensively used because of their high efficiency, long life times, excellent reliability and robustness. TWTs can operate over a wide microwave frequency range from 500 MHz to 1THz. Recent researchers were able to develop TWTs with a frequency band of more than 2 octaves and improve the DC to RF efficiency from 30% to 70%.

1.2 Solid state devices vs TWTs

A wide range of microwave solid state devices have been developed since 1960s to replace the existing vacuum tubes. Microwave solid state devices include microwave transistors, field effect transistors, transferred electron devices (TED) and avalanche transit time devices. Solid state microwave devices offer small size, light weight and moderate output power. With the advent of number of research work in solid state devices, operation at higher frequencies and higher output power densities were achieved. But, the performances of these devices are limited by their material physics. These performances are always inferior to that of the vacuum devices.

The displacement of microwave tubes by solid state devices have occurred only at low-power and receiving circuit level of equipment and solid state devices are still no match for the vacuum electron devices in terms of power handling capability. In order for microwave solid state devices to operate at a higher frequency their size must shrink significantly, thereby reducing their breakdown voltage and power handling ability. Vacuum electron devices are capable of much larger electron speeds as the electrons travel ballistically, unimpeded in vacuum. In solid state devices the electrons travel through semiconductor material imparting thermal energy. The electron movement inside the semiconductor materials at high frequencies dissipate large amount of heat energy and thereby reducing efficiency. Microwave vacuum tubes continue, however as the only choice for high-power transmitter outputs and are expected to maintain this dominant role throughout the next generation and beyond. It is the properties of intrinsic hardness to radiation, high temperature operation, high frequency operation and performance that make the vacuum tube devices attractive compared to solid state devices. TWTs are more reliable devices for high frequency, large bandwidth and high efficiency operation. Their reliability continues to improve as a result of research work in the area of low-temperature cathode technology, better materials and quality control in manufacture.

1.3 Working of Vacuum Tubes

A vacuum electron tube is an electronic device used to amplify radio frequency (RF) signals to very large power. The amplification of the RF signals is achieved from the kinetic energy transfer of the electron beam to the electromagnetic wave. In most vacuum devices, the electron beam is generated by heating the cathode, and then accelerating the electrons using anode with an applied dc voltage. The generated electron beam is confined by a strong magnetic field preventing the electrons from spreading out. The electron beam is focused with this magnetic field into an interaction structure as shown in Figure 1.4. During this travel of the electron beam in the interaction structure, the kinetic energy of the electron is transferred to high frequency RF signals.

Figure 1.4 Internal structure of Travelling Wave Tube (TWT). Source: Thales electron devices

The interaction structures discussed above are of two types: 1. slow wave structures and 2. fast wave structures. The devices are called fast or slow wave structures based on whether the phase speed of the propagating RF wave is larger or smaller than the speed of the light. The most important microwave tubes are the linear-beam tubes (O type). The paramount O-type tube is the two-cavity klystron, and it is followed by the reflex klystron. The helix travelling wave tube (TWT), the coupled-cavity TWT, the forward-wave amplifier (FWA), and the backward-wave amplifier and oscillator (BWA and BWO) are also O-type tubes, but they have non-resonant periodic structures for electron interactions. The twystron is a hybrid amplifier that uses combinations of klystron and TWT components. In a linear-beam tube a magnetic field whose axis coincides with that of the electron beam is used to hold the beam together as it travels the length of the tube. In these tubes electrons receive potential energy from the dc electron beam voltage before they arrive in the microwave interaction region, and this energy is converted into kinetic energy. In the microwave interaction region, the electrons are either accelerated or decelerated by the microwave field and then bunched as they drift down the tube. The bunched electrons, in turn, induce current in the output structure. The electrons then give up their kinetic energy to the microwave fields and are collected by the collector. The klystrons and TWT amplifiers are capable of delivering a peak output power up to 30 MW (megawatts) with a beam voltage on the order of 100kV at a frequency of 10 GHz, The average power outputs are up to 700 kW. The gain of these tubes is on
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the order of 30 to 70 dB, and the efficiency is from 15 to 60%. The bandwidth is from 1 to 8% for klystrons and 10 to 15% for TWTs. For broadband applications, as observed from the data, TWT is extensively used compared to klystron. TWTs make use of nonresonant structures in which the wave is made to propagate with a speed comparable speed to that of the electron beam. A travelling-wave tube consists of an electron beam, focusing magnets, a slow wave structure and collector arrangement. Typical slow wave structures include helical slow wave structures, contra wound helix type structures, twin helix structures, corrugated waveguide structures. This research focuses on the tape helix type slow wave structure.

1.4 Literature Survey

The characterization of the electromagnetic waves supported by a metallic helix has been the subject of extensive investigations, beginning, apparently, with an approximate treatment by Pocklington [1], who analyzed waves supported by a thin-wire helix. It was not until the invention of the helix traveling wave tube by Kompfner [2], however, and its subsequent analysis by Pierce [3], that interest in the details of the slow-wave electromagnetic modes of a helix greatly increased. An indepth study of electromagnetic wave propagation on helical conductors has been performed by Samuel Sensiper way back in 1952 [4], some of which was abstracted in a later review article [5], where many references up to 1955 may be found. Sensiper discussed both the so-called sheath model of the helix, in which currents are constrained to flow in helical paths on a cylindrical wall, as well as a finite-width tape model, which contains the effects of spatial harmonics absent from the sheath model. In both cases, Sensipers analysis applied to an unsupported helix in free space. He has outlined essentially two approaches for analyzing the tape-helix problem. Using the first approach, he has demonstrated the feasibility of an exact solution for the tape helix; unfortunately, he chose to eschew this approach on the ground that it is of no practical use for obtaining useful numerical results or for determining the detailed character of the solutions" preferring instead a second approach that involved an a priori assumption about the current distribution on the tape as a result of which it was possible to satisfy the boundary conditions on the tangential electric field only approximately. Nevertheless, it is this latter approach that has been endorsed by the majority of later generations of research workers in the TWT area mainly because of its tractability. All variants of this second simplified
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approach are characterized invariably by a common assumption, namely, that the tape current density component perpendicular to the winding direction may be neglected without much error. A notable exception to the practice of satisfying the tangential electric field boundary condition only along the centerline of the tape is the variational formulation developed by Chodorow and Chu [6] for cross-wound twin helices wherein the error in satisfying the tangential electric field boundary condition is minimized for an assumed tape-current distribution by making the average error equal to zero. The rationale behind the approach of Chodorow and Chu for single-wire helix has been outlined by Watkins in his book [7] assuming that (i) the tape current flows only along the winding direction, (ii) it does not vary in phase or amplitude over the width of the tape, and (iii) its phase variation is according to centerline of the tape. The dielectric loaded structure of sheath helix with electron beam interaction was done by Vanderplaats et.al [8] in 1992. The analysis was carried by considering the homogeneously loaded dielectric layer to be lossy and later it was developed by Fruend et al[9] and Ghosh et al [10] with discrete dielectric layers. Their analyses involved the circuit theory method of calculating the transverse admittances to satisfy the boundary conditions across the radial regions. The field analyses carried by Fruend et al [9] were based on the inherent assumptions on the tape current distribution across the tape failing thereby to satisfy the boundary conditions. Beginning with the fundamental work of Samuel Sensiper [4] until very recently [11], almost all the published derivations of the propagation characteristic of electromagnetic waves guided by a helical slow-wave structure have made use of the anisotropically conducting tapehelix model in which the perpendicular component of the tape current density along the tape is neglected. All of these derivations [6-21] without exception were based on an apriori assumption about the behaviour of the tape current distribution near the edges [12] or an ad hoc assumption about the tape-current distribution [8,15-16,19-21]. As a consequence, the tangential electric field boundary conditions on the tape surface could only be satisfied in some approximate sense. The necessity of such an ad hoc assumption about the tape-current distribution arose out of the inherent inability of the assumed series-expansion for the tapecurrent density to correctly confine the surface current to the tape surface only. In other words, for z corresponding to a point moving along the

the infinite series for the tape-current density ought to have summed automatically to zero in the gap region (the region on the cylindrical surface between the tapes) but does not. DAgostino et al [15] and Tsutaki et al [16] based their analysis of guided electromagnetic wave propagation through a dielectric-loaded tape helix on an assumed function dependence for the tape-current distribution whereas Kosmahl and Branch [17] made use of a function dependence for the gap fields in their analysis of guided-wave

propagation supported by a dielectric-loaded tape helix. Tien[19] and McMurtry[20] have analysed the effects of a supporting dielectric layer surrounded by a metal tube based on a tapecurrent distribution used by Sensiper[4] and Watkins[7]. The same observation may be made about the work of Uhm and Choe [21] on guided electromagnetic wave propagation using the anisotropically conducting model of a dielectric-loaded tape helix. A completely different formulation in terms of helical coordinates was proposed by Chen Qingyou et al [22] to tackle the problem of guided electromagnetic wave propagation through a tape helix supported by a finite number of symmetrically located wedge-shaped dielectric rods without resorting to homogenization of the nonhomogeneous dielectric region between the tape helix and the outer conductor by azimuthal averaging. However, it was not possible to satisfy the electromagnetic boundary conditions in the gap regions of the tape helix within the framework proposed by Chen Qingyou et al. Although the derivation of the dispersion equation presented by Chernin et al.[12] involves neither any a priori assumption about the tape-current distribution except for its behavior near the tape edges nor any approximations in satisfying the tangential electric field boundary conditions on the tape surface, their surface-current density expansions, which are assumed to have a form identical to those of the field components when restricted to the surface of the infinite cylinder containing the tape helix, do not again seem to be capable of limiting the support of the surface-current density to the region of the tape only. Moreover, reexpansions of the tape current density components in terms of Chebyshev polynomials resorted to by Chernin et al.[12], seem to be motivated by the anticipated singularity of the surface current density component parallel to the winding direction near the tape edges. Such an a priori assumption regarding the edge behaviour of the surface current density component is totally unnecessary as an ordinary Fourier-series expansion is pretty well capable of bringing out any such singular
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behaviour, if present, as long as the singularity is integrable. Another anomalous behaviour displayed by the surface current density plots obtained by Chernin et al. concerns the lack of symmetry about the center line of the tape. C.L Kory et al [23] used simulation tool known as MAFIA in the analysis of the tape helix structures. It was surprising to note the attempt to validate of the theory based on a simulation tool unless an algorithm based on a correct analysis of an adequate model of the problem has already been incorporated into it. As discussed above, works related to the dielectric-loaded structures classified as homogeneously loaded, stratified loaded and vane loaded were carried out by different researchers from time to time but with an assumption about the tape current distribution and failing to incorporate the correct homogeneous boundary conditions.

1.5 Thesis Outline

This thesis will present the electromagnetic wave propagation in tape helix for use in the small-signal and large-signal field analysis of TWT amplifiers. Chapter 2 will introduce the TWT operation, electromagnetic physics and the tape helix structure. Chapter 3 will introduce to modelling of the helix TWTs in which the practical structure of the TWTs are simplified by considering various assumptions with regard to the dielectric support structure and current distribution along the tape surface are provided. Chapter 4 discusses about the mathematical fundamentals pertaining to the electromagnetic waves in cylindrical systems. Chapter 4 also discusses about the properties of periodic structures governed by Floquets theorem. Chapter 5 will introduce the formulation of the boundary conditions, derivation of the dispersion equation and the numerical scheme for the anisotropically conducting model of the open tape helix model. Chapter 6 will present the more practical model of a dielectric loaded anisotropically conducting tape helix structure. Chapter 5 and 6 will be concluded by the numerical scheme and a discussion of the results. Chapter 7 is the conclusions and future directions of research in the field of modelling of traveling wave tubes. Discussion on dielectric loaded sheath helix model that is used for the purpose of comparison is provided in Appendix A.