A dual-beam planar dielectric-rod-support uniform metallic meander line slow-wave structure (SWS) for high-efficiency Ka-band traveling wave tube (TWT) is proposed in this paper. Two dielectric rods are placed on both sides of metallic meander line to support it, instead of the dielectric substrate in the conventional microstrip meander line. Furthermore, it can not only solve the problem of the electron charge accumulation on microstrip but also leads to a bigger interaction impedance. According to particle-in-cell simulation results, a dual-sheet-beam planar dielectric-rod-support uniform metallic meander line TWT can get an output power of 330.2 W at 38 GHz under the case of 10.6 kV beam voltage and 0.2 A beam current. The corresponding maximum gain and electron efficiency are 23.4 dB and 15.5%, respectively, where the length of whole SWS is only 20 mm.

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An attenuator supporting meander-line (ASML) slow wave structure (SWS) is proposed for a Ka-band traveling wave tube (TWT) and studied by simulations and experiments. The ASML SWS simplifies the fabrication and assembly process of traditional planar metal meander-lines (MLs) structures, by employing an attenuator to support the ML on the bottom of the enclosure rather than welding them together on the sides. To reduce the surface roughness of the molybdenum ML caused by laser cutting, the ML is coated by a thin copper film by magnetron sputtering. The measured S11 of the ML is below −20 dB and S21 varies around −8 dB to −12 dB without the attenuator, while below −40 dB with the attenuator. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation results show that with a 4.4-kV, 200-mA sheet electron beam, a maximum output power of 126 W is obtained at 38 GHz, corresponding to a gain of 24.1 dB and an electronic efficiency of 14.3%, respectively.

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