Description
Objective:
Development and validation of high voltage collector and high efficiency delay line for high frequency & high power TWT.
Targeted improvements: Validation of the critical building blocks towards the development of high performance 100W Q-band TWT.
Description:
When moving to higher frequencies of 40 GHz and beyond, where power capabilities of 150 W and above are needed, the high voltage design of the collector has to be improved to beyond 14 kV. The new design will require a combination of high thermal dissipation and high voltage steps in a completely new technology field for space tubes, which has never been addressed before.
Additionally, it is important to optimise the delay line in order to get an optimum interaction between the RF signal and the electron beam leading to a better TWT efficiency at higher power and higher frequencies. The design case for this optimisation will be a Q-band TWT.
Both building blocks will be designed, developed and tested.
The suitability of the selected technologies will be verified through the manufacturing and testing of a TWT demonstrator.
A development plan towards EM and EQM will be generated at the end of the activity.
Procurement Policy: C(1) = Activity restricted to non-prime contractors (incl. SMEs). For additional information please go to EMITS news "Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and R&D entities in ESA programmes".