A 0.85 THz vacuum-based power amplifier

Abstract

A 0.850 THz vacuum electronic power amplifier capable of >;100mW output power is being developed at Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems. The compact power amplifier is based on a DRIE-fabricated folded waveguide slow-wave circuit, together with a high current density thermionic cathode, a high field permanent magnet solenoid, and a single-stage depressed collector for overall device efficiency. The new 0.85 THz power amplifier design is based on a 0.67 THz amplifier that achieved over 100mW of output power with 21.5 dB of gain, 15 GHz of operational bandwidth, a collector efficiency of 93% and an overall device efficiency of 0.44%.