Proceedings of International Conference on Microwave - 08
Invited Talk
Microwave Tubes: A Necessity for High Power Applications
Vishnu Srivastava
Microwave Tubes Division, Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI), Pilani
(Raj .)-333031, India.
E-mail: vs@ceeri.res.in
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
High power microwave tubes can generate power in
MW level even at frequency above 100GHz. These
tubes are a necessity for various applications like high
data rate ground and space communications, defence
and civilian radars, linear accelerators, plasma heating,
and e-bomb. Solid-state devices are not available to
meet these objectives because of their power level in
few watts. Some of the important high power
applications using different types of high power
microwave tubes are given below:
Terrestrial & satellite communication:
It requires broadband amplifiers of moderate
average power, in different frequency range. Both
coupled-cavity and helix TWTs have the distinction of
broadband amplification with high gain and high
linearity. High efficiency TWT is needed for space
based TV & radio broadcasting, telecommunications,
data transmission, multimedia applications
(intemet/HDTV), earth observation, navigation, and
many scientific mission including deep space.
Microwave power module (MPM) is a new development
for a compact amplifier that includes a combination of
solid-state and vacuum tube technologies.
Radars for civil aviation and defence:
It requires high pulsed power in different frequency
range from L-band to V-band. Both coherent
Magnetrons and coupled-cavity TWT have the
distinction of providing high pulsed power suitable for
radars of various purposes. Sophisticated radars are
required for electronic warfare (EW), missile guidance
and tracking. Miniature Klystrons, and gain & phase
matched miniature TWTs, are relatively new
developments respectively for on-board missiles and for
tracking radars.
Microwave heating:
It requires high average power at fixed frequency
for both domestic & industrial heating. Magnetron has
the distinction of generation of high power with high
efficiency. It has low cost and compact in size.
Magnetrons of different power levels mostly in S-band
are used for different heating applications including
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domestic microwave ovens to various heating
applicators for industrial use.
Plasma heating in tokamaks:
It requires high average power in MW power level
at frequencies preferably above 100GHz. Gyrotron - a
fast wave device has the distinction of generating the
highest average output microwave power at such high
frequencies. High power gyro-devices are also being
explored for many defence applications.
High energy linear accelerators:
It requires narrowband amplifiers of high pulsed
output power in MW range from 1GHz to over 10GHz.
Klystron has the distinction of producing pulsed power
in MW range by amplifying low driving signal with
high gain and low noise. Multi-beam Klystrons are
relatively new development for low voltage requirement
and compact size.
Non-lethal weaponry applications (e-bomb):
It requires very high power microwave (HPM) sources
like relativistic devices (BWO, Magnetrons), free
electron laser (FEL), VIRCATOR to provide more than
1GW of peak power in short pulses on the order of
lOOns. Active denial technology of using high average
power at 94 GHz is being explored for non-lethal crowd
control.
Solar power satellite (SPS):
SPS is used for transfer of solar energy to earth in
the form of microwave power. It requires high efficient
(>80%) high power fixed frequency S-band (2.45GHz)
magnetrons. Active research work with the support of
many countries is being carried out to tap the solar
power through microwave using low-orbit SPS.
THz applications:
Vacuum microelectronic devices of output power
even at 1Wand at terahertz (THz) frequencies above
100GHz offer enormous applications for wide band
communication, imaging radars, security, and many
unexplored areas of scientific, industrial and medical
applications. Such vacuum devices at frequency above
100GHz are very small in dimension and
microelectronic technology is needed for their
Proceedings of International Conference on Microwave - 08

fabrication. Successful development of THz vacuum Fig.1 and Fig.2. Fig.1 shows C-band 60W space TWT
microelectronic devices therefore needs fusion of that has been developed jointly by CEERI and BEL
vacuum tube technology with the semi-conductor based on CEERI design. Fig.2 shows C-X-Ku-band
technology. Significant efforts are being carried out 100W MPM as developed by MTRDC jointly with
worldwide to develop such compact vacuum devices CEERI and other institutions.
using LIGA & DRIE technologies. FEA cathode using
nano-technology is used in these devices.
Indian Scenario for Microwave tubes development:
CEERI-Pilani & MTRDC- B'lore are two major
research institutions in India where significant
development work on different types of microwave
tubes are going on. Development of C, Ku, & Ka band
high efficiency TWTs for satellite communication, S-
band 3MW (peak) Magnetron for medical accelerator, Fig.l: C-band 60W Space TWT
S-band 6MW pulsed Klystron for linear accelerator, J-
band 300W pulsed Klystron for missiles, 42GHz, 200W
& 120GHz, 1MW Gyrotrons for plasma heating, THz
vacuum microelectronic device for medical imaging,
and dispenser cathodes, are presently being carried out
at CEERI. Development of high power microwave tubes
like coupled-cavity TWTs, broadband helix TWTs,
Gyro-TWT, MPM, VIRCATOR & dispenser cathodes,
are being done at MTRDC. BEL, Bangalore, is main Fig.2: C-X-Ku-band lOOW MPM
manufacturing agency for microwave tubes.Two recent
significant developments of our country are shown in

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