Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 43, No. 6, December 2003, pp.

11051111
Three-Dimensional Simulations of an X-Band Coupled-Cavity
Traveling-Wave-Tube Amplier
D. M. Park and J. J. Choi

High Power Microwave Engineering Laboratory, School of Electronics Engineering, Kwangwoon University, Seoul 139-701
(Received 25 June 2003)
Numerical results on 3-D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of an X-band coupled-cavity traveling-
wave-tube (TWT) are presented. A single, staggered slow wave structure is designed to operate
in an X-band frequency range with an output radiation power of 196 W. The 3-D electromagnetic
simulation code, HFSS, and the 3-D PIC code, MAGIC3D, are used to predict the dispersion
characteristics and the interaction impedance of the TWT circuit. Measurements on a nine-cavity
cold-test circuit show that the dispersion characteristics are in good agreement with the numerical
calculations. The 3-D PIC, non-linear, large-signal simulations predict that the saturated radiation
power is 196 W, corresponding to an electronic eciency of 10.8 % and a gain of 21 dB at 9.4 GHz.
A linear gain growth rate of 1 dB/cm is observed from the MAGIC3D simulation, which agrees with
the Pierce gain growth rate of 1.6 dB/cm. Simulations of the two-tone intermodulation distortion
of the TWT show that the third-order intermodulation distortion is 16 dBc at saturation and 20
dBc at a 6-dB back-o from the saturation.
PACS numbers: 84
Keywords: TWT, PIC simulation
I. INTRODUCTION
The traveling-wave-tube (TWT) was invented several
decades ago. Its remarkable capabilities and potential
applications for broadband high-power radiation sources
have been widely recognized. The conguration of the
beam and wave interaction circuit, often referred to as
a slow-wave structure, determines the tube type and the
power-handling characteristics. Typical types of inter-
action circuits used as a slow-wave structure include a
dielectric-loaded helix circuit, a coupled cavity, and a
folded waveguide. Among these slow-wave circuits, the
coupled-cavity TWT has the highest power-handling ca-
pability, and its operating frequency range can be ex-
tended up to the millimeter-wave frequency band. The
millitron invented by B. James [1] at Communication
and Power Industry has an advantage over other coupled-
cavity circuits in that the circuit can be fabricated at low
cost. The millitron is widely used for applications such
as high-power radar transmitters and long-range com-
munications in the microwave- and the millimeter-wave
frequency range.
In this paper, particle-in-cell (PIC) code simulations
on the millitron-type, single staggered coupled-cavity
TWT, which were performed using analytic theory,
a 3-dimensional PIC code, MAGIC3D [2], and a 3-
dimensional electromagnetic code, HFSS [3], are re-

E-mail: jinchoi@daisy.kw.ac.kr; Fax: +82-2-916-9270

ported. In Section II, analytic dispersion relations of the
slow-wave structure based on the equivalent circuit and
the Pierce small-signal theory are used to establish the
initial circuit parameters. The non-linear, large-signal
performance of a TWT amplier is predicted from nu-
merical simulations by using the MAGIC3D code. Sim-
ulation results are described in Section III. In addition,
MAGIC3D simulations on intermodulation distortion of
TWT amplier are described in Section IV.
II. BEAM AND WAVE INTERACTION
CIRCUIT
The interaction mechanism of a coupled-cavity TWT
is similar to that of klystron, except that electromagnetic
waves travel along the coupled-cavity slow-wave interac-
tion circuit. Multiple cavities are connected in series
through coupling slots in common walls. Because of the
non-resonant characteristics of the waves in the coupled-
cavity circuit, the interaction can take place over a much
wider band of frequencies than in the klystron. If an
input signal is to be amplied, the wave phase velocity
must be synchronized to the velocity of the electrons.
Electromagnetic waves traveling in a uniform metallic
waveguide have a phase velocity greater than the speed
of light. Therefore, a slow-wave structure supporting a
wave traveling with velocity less than the speed of light
is needed for phase synchronism with the electron beam.
-1105-
-1106- Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 43, No. 6, December 2003
Fig. 1. Single-slot, staggered ladder slow-wave circuit.
In this paper, a millitron-type, slow-wave structure is in-
vestigated. As shown in Fig. 1, the structure consists
of two slab ladders and two cover plates to enclose the
interaction circuit.
The rst design stage of the TWT involves derivation
of - dispersion relation in the slow-wave circuit. In
general, the - diagram is useful in that it gives much
insight into basic behavior in the interaction frequency
band. A detailed analysis using eld theory is very dif-
cult due to the complex geometry and the boundary
condition. Computer modeling, along with the use of
an equivalent circuit, can provide the - diagram with
great accuracy. Curnow [4] and Gittins [5] described
the dispersion relation by using an equivalent circuit
model. The equation of the dispersion relation for a
single-staggered coupled cavity can be expressed as [6]
cos = 1
2
kk
c

1

2

2
c

1 +k
c

2
s

(1)
where
c
=
1

L
C
C
C
,
s
=
1

L
S
C
S
, and k
c
=
kL
S

L
C
. The
- diagram can be obtained by measuring the resonant
frequencies in an enclosed coupled cavity. N cavities yield
N resonant peaks. With the help of three-dimensional
electromagnetic simulation codes, it is possible to per-
form cold tests of the coupled cavity, such as the dis-
persion relation and the interaction impedance. The
method for nding the dispersion relation is similar to
that of Kantrowitz and Tammaru [7]. Simulations are
performed using the 3-D electromagnetic code HFSS and
the 3-D PIC code MAGIC3D. The - curve is obtained
from Eq. (1) by using the calculated cuto and the mid-
phase frequencies of the passband which determine the
unknown parameters k and k
c
. A nine-cavity section was
also simulated, and the results were compared with those
from the equivalent circuit model. As shown in Fig. 2,
the two results agree well with each other.
In order to compare simulation results, we constructed
a cold-test circuit of nine coupled cavities. Table 1
Fig. 2. Dispersion diagram of a coupled cavity circuit
(lled circle: HFSS (cavity mode), dotted line: equivalent
circuit model (slot mode), solid line: equivalent circuit model
(cavity mode)).
Table 1. Cavity dimensions of the cold test structure.
Cavity Cavity Cavity Slot Wall Slot Beam-hole
Width Height Length Thickness Size Size
(inch) (inch) (inch) (inch) (inch) (inch)
0.8 0.6 0.1 0.06 0.1 0.6 0.05 0.05
Fig. 3. Measured resonant peaks of the cold-test structure.
summarizes the cavity dimensions of the cold-test cou-
pled cavity. The resonant frequencies measured with the
HP8510C vector network analyzer are shown in Fig. 3.
A summary of the measured and the predicted values is
given in Table 2. It is noted that the dierences between
the simulated and the measured data are less than 1.3
%. The dispersion curve with the beam line used to nd
the proper operating frequency band is depicted in Fig.
4.
Three-Dimensional Simulations of an X-Band Coupled-Cavity D. M. Park and J. J. Choi -1107-
Table 2. Comparison of calculated and measured resonant frequencies.
Measured
Cavity MAGIC HFSS
Result
(f
mea
f
MAGIC
)/f
mea
(f
mea
f
HFS
)/f
mea
mode (GHz) (GHz)
(GHz)
(%) (%)
0, 2 11.76 11.748 11.731 0.24 0.14
/9 11.45 11.41 11.5 0.43 0.78
2/9 10.86 10.83 10.968 0.98 1.25
3/9 10.25 10.22 10.35 0.96 1.25
4/9 9.68 9.66 9.717 0.38 0.58
5/9 9.17 9.16 9.175 0.05 0.16
6/9 8.76 8.74 8.713 0.54 0.3
7/9 8.443 8.44 8.356 1.03 1
Fig. 4. Cavity mode dispersion curve with the 8.2-kV beam
line.
The interaction impedance seen by the electron beam
is another important parameter for obtaining Pierces
gain parameter because the gain is approximately pro-
portional to the cube root of the impedance [8]. For
a simple circuit in which the electromagnetic elds are
easily calculated, this quantity can be obtained readily.
However, for many practical slow-wave circuits in which
the eld proles are very complicated, the interaction
impedance is determined by laboratory measurements.
The use of computer codes is one way of measuring the
interaction impedance [9]. According to Floquets theo-
rem, the eld in a periodic structure is composed of all
the space harmonic components, each of which has its
own phase velocity [10]. For a lossless structure, an axial
electric eld on the z-axis can be expressed as
E
z
=

n=
E
n
e
j
n
z
(2)
where
n
=
0
+
2n
L
, n is the space harmonic order, and
L is the one-period length in a periodic structure. For
each value of the phase shift per cavity on the dispersion
curve, the Pierce on-axis interaction impedance of the
n-th space harmonic is given by [10]
K
n
=
E
2
n
2
2
n
P
RF
(3)
where E
n
is the on-axis electric eld magnitude of the
n-th space harmonic. P
RF
is the RF power ow in a
coupled-cavity, which is calculated using
P
RF
= Wv
g
=
W
T
NL
v
g
(4)
where W
T
is the total stored energy in the number of
cavities, N, and v
g
is the group velocity. In order to ob-
tain the magnitude, E
n
, we carried out a Fourier analysis
on the total on-axis axial electric eld, E
z
(z), shown in
Fig. 5. The total axial electric eld represented in terms
of a Fourier series is
E
z
(z) =

n=1
a
n
cos(
n
z) +b
n
sin(
n
z) (5)
with
a
n
=
1
T

T
T
E
z
(z) cos(
n
z)dz (6)
and
b
n
=
1
T

T
T
E
z
(z) sin(
n
z)dz (7)
where T is the period of E
z
(z). The values of E
z
(z)
and W
T
are easily calculated from the EIGENMODE
function in the MAGIC3D code. v
g
is extracted from the
dispersion curve plotted as a function of the frequency
and L. The magnitude of the n-th space harmonic is
obtained from
E
n
=
2
T

T
0
E
z
(z) cos(
n
z)dz. (8)
Figure 6 shows the simulated rst space harmonic in-
teraction impedance of the coupled cavity as a function
-1108- Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 43, No. 6, December 2003
Fig. 5. Total axial on-axis electric elds of cavity modes.
Fig. 6. Pierce on-axis interaction impedance.
of the phase shift per cavity. Space-charge waves will
interact strongly with the axially directed electric elds,
provided the phase velocity of the circuit wave is synchro-
Fig. 7. Growth of the electric eld intensity.
nized with that of the space-charge wave. The forward
growing wave has a growth rate given by [8],
G = 20

3 log
10
e
C
= 47.26C[dB/
e
] (9)
where C is the Pierce gain parameter dened by

KI
0
4V
0
1
3
with I
0
and V
0
being the beam current and voltage, K
the interaction impedance,
e
the propagation constant
for the electron beam, and
e
the electronic wavelength
dened as
e
= 2/
e
. In this design study, the linear
gain growth rate is computed to be 1.6 dB/cm at 9.6
GHz when the voltage is 8.2 kV and the beam current is
0.22 A.
III. NON-LINEAR PARTICLE-IN-CELL
SIMULATIONS
MAGIC3D is a user-congurable code that solves
the dynamic set of Maxwells equation, together with
Lorentz particle motion, to obtain a self-consistent so-
lution in time and three-dimensional space. This code
has been used for research and design in many elds,
such as vacuum electron tubes, accelerator components,
beam propagation, and many other devices [2]. Since
the interaction mechanisms between the electron and the
electromagnetic eld are very complex, numerical com-
puter simulation code is used to anticipate the perfor-
mance of the coupled-cavity TWT. In the simulations
of the coupled-cavity TWT, the electron beam hole is
modeled as having a rectangular shape where a man-
ual grid command is used to reduce the total simulation
time. Since a small beam hole does not signicantly af-
fect the wave propagation constant of the coupled-cavity
structure, such a rectangular beam hole yields simulation
results as accurate as a round beam hole. The input and
the output matching sections consist of capacitive win-
dow structures. To saturate the TWT, we set the number
of cavities to 63. The cavity dimensions used in simu-
lation are the same as those of the cold-test circuit, as
listed in Table 1. The beam parameters used in the fol-
lowing simulations are a beam voltage of 8.2 kV, a beam
current of 0.22 A, and a magnetic eld of 2 kG.
Figure 7 depicts the electric eld growth along the
axial distance as a result of the beam-wave interaction on
a cross-sectional view of the coupled-cavity circuit. Due
to the strong interaction between the electron and waves,
Three-Dimensional Simulations of an X-Band Coupled-Cavity D. M. Park and J. J. Choi -1109-
Fig. 8. Axial electron beam bunching.
Fig. 9. Phase-space plot of the kinetic energy.
Fig. 10. Drive curve of the coupled-cavity TWT.
an axially modulated beam is clearly seen in Fig. 8. As
the RF signals travel along the circuit, this interaction
continuously takes place, and the energy of the electrons
is converted to RF energy. This typical result can be
observed by using the axial momentum-phase-space plot
in Fig. 9, where the down-streamed electron energy is
far less than its initial energy level.
An amplier drive curve for three dierent frequencies
is shown in Fig. 10. Simulations predict the saturated
power to be 196 W, corresponding to an electronic e-
ciency of 10.8 % and a gain of 21 dB, where the input
power is 1.37 W and the drive frequency is 9.4 GHz. To
obtain the instantaneous bandwidth, we x all the input
parameters except for the drive frequencies. The drive
Fig. 11. Instantaneous bandwidth.
Fig. 12. Simulated gain as a function of the distance at
9.6 GHz.
signals are excited into the input waveguide by using the
DRIVE command. Figure 11 shows that the 3-dB band-
width is more than 5 %.
Using Pierces small-signal theory described in an
earlier section, the axial gain growth rate was cal-
culated from the gain parameter and the interaction
impedance. The linear growth rate can be obtained from
the MAGIC3D simulation, as well. It one notes that the
time-averaged power can be computed from the electric
eld through P
av
= (ab/4)|E
0
|
2

1 (f/f
c
)
2
, where a
and b are the X-band waveguide cross-section dimensions
and is the wave impedance of the free space, the axial
gain growth rate is easily obtained, as shown in Fig. 12.
The result shows that the gain growth rate is about 1
dB/cm, which is slightly lower than Pierces linear gain
of 1.6 dB/cm. The discrepancy may be due to the sim-
plied structure, such as the beam hole, and QC, which
is known as Pierces space-charge parameter, being dis-
regarded. The TWT gain dependence on currents is also
predicted for dierent beam currents in order to nd the
-1110- Journal of the Korean Physical Society, Vol. 43, No. 6, December 2003
Fig. 13. Gain dependence on currents.
Table 3. Summary of MAGIC3D simulations.
Voltage 8.2 kV
Current 0.22 A
Power @ 9.4 GHz 196 W
Saturated gain @ 9.4 GHz 21 dB
Electronic eciency @ 9.4 GHz 10.8 %
Bandwidth > 5 %
Gain growth rate @ 9.6 GHz 1 dB/cm
operating condition that maximizes the gain of the am-
plier. Figure 13 shows that the gain is saturated at
about 0.3 A. A summary of MAGIC3D simulations is
given in Table 3.
IV. INTERMODULATION DISTORTIONS
When two or more carrier signals are injected simul-
taneously into a traveling-wave-tube, a well-known in-
termodulation distortion takes place. This results in in-
termodulation products which are located near the car-
rier frequencies by multiples of the frequency separation
of the carriers. This intermodulation distortion comes
from the non-linear interaction of the input signals and
the electron beam AC modulation. Among the intermod-
ulation products, the third-order intermodulation prod-
ucts are the main concern because they are located in
the vicinity of the carrier frequencies and they are the
largest in amplitude. There are ways of suppressing the
amplitude of the intermodulation products, such as the
back-o, the feedback, the predistortion, and the feed-
forward linearizing techniques.
Noting that the frequency resolution in a time-
dependent simulation is inversely proportional to the to-
tal simulation time, we set the total simulation time to
100 ns, corresponding to a frequency resolution of 10
Fig. 14. Beat-wave pattern of two input signals.
Fig. 15. Spectrum of two-tone intermodulation distortions.
MHz. The beat-wave pattern of two dierent frequen-
cies is clearly seen in Fig. 14. A frequency spectrum can
be obtained from the beat-wave pattern using the OB-
SERVE command in MAGIC3D and the FFT algorithm
in the numerical code. As Fig. 15 shows, the third-order
intermodulation is 16 dBc with respect to the carrier
amplitude when the amplier is operating with an input
power of 5.4 W and 20 dBc when the input drive signal
is backed o by 6 dB. Table 4 summarizes the simulated
intermodulation output products of the coupled-cavity
TWT for two dierent input signals of 9.4 GHz and 9.5
GHz. The broadband background spectrum is believed
to originate from numerical noise.
V. CONCLUSIONS
Non-linear 3-D PIC code simulations of an X-
band, single staggered, coupled-cavity TWT are per-
formed. The dispersion characteristics and the interac-
tion impedance of the slow-wave structure are investi-
gated by using Curnows equivalent circuit, HFSS, and
Three-Dimensional Simulations of an X-Band Coupled-Cavity D. M. Park and J. J. Choi -1111-
Table 4. Intermodulation distortion of two-tone signals.
Intermodulation Intermodulation
Intermodulation Intermodulation distortion at 5.6 W distortion at 1.3 W
products (GHz) (dBc) (dBc)
f
1
-2f
2
(9.3) 16.3 20
3
rd
order
f
2
-2 f
1
(9.6) 17.4 20.1
3 f
1
-2 f
2
(9.2) 29.7 31.5
5
th
order
3 f
2
-2 f
1
(9.7) 29.3 37.8
4 f
1
-3 f
2
(9.1) 30.9 38.2
7
th
order
4 f
2
-3 f
1
(9.8) 32.8 41.6
MAGIC3D. A nine-cavity cold-test circuit is fabricated
to examine the dispersion characteristics. Measurements
show that the dispersion characteristics agree well with
the calculated values within 1.3 %. MAGIC3D is also
used to model a coupled-cavity TWT with 63 cavities.
Simulations predict that the amplier produces a satu-
rated output power of 196 W with an electronic eciency
of 10.8 % and gain of 21 dB when the input power is 1.37
W and the drive frequency is 9.4 GHz. To obtain the 3-
dB instantaneous bandwidth, we sweep drive frequencies
with equal power. The bandwidth is found to be more
than 5 %. The linear gain growth rate is observed to be 1
dB/cm, which is close to Pierces gain growth rate of 1.6
dB/cm. The MAGIC3D code is also used to investigate
the two-tone intermodulation distortion characteristics
of the TWT. Simulations show that the third-order in-
termodulation product is 16 dBc at an input power of
5.4 W. The third harmonic can be decreased to 20 dBc
at an input power of 1.3 W, which is a 6-dB back-o
from the saturation point.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the year 2002 internal
research fund of Kwangwoon University and by the Nano
Research and Development Program of Korea Institute
of Science and Technology Evaluation and Planning. The
author would like to thank Myungsik Ham and Mankuy
Lee of Samsung-Thales Inc. for their encouragement and
advice in preparing this paper.
REFERENCES
[1] B. G. James, Microwave System News, 16, 0156 (1986).
[2] B. Goplen, L. Ludeking, D. Smithe and G. Warren,
Comp. Phys. Commun. 87, 54 (1995).
[3] High Frequency Structure Simulator Users Reference,
Ansoft Co., 2001.
[4] H. J. Curnow, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech.
MTT-13, 671 (1965).
[5] J. F. Gittins, Power Traveling Wave Tubes (American
Elsevier, New York, 1965).
[6] A. S. Gilmour, Microwave Tubes (Artech House, Nor-
wood, 1986).
[7] F. Kantrowitz and I. Tammaru, IEEE Trans. Electron
Devices ED-35, 2018 (1988).
[8] J. R. Pierce, Traveling Wave Tubes (Van Nostrand Com-
pany, Princeton, 1950).
[9] C. L. Kory, Proc. Tech. Dig. Int. Electron Devices Meet-
ing (Washington DC, Dec., 1992), p. 763
[10] J. W. Gewartowski and H. A. Watson, Principles of Elec-
tron Tubes (Van Nostrand Company, Princeton, 1965).