Experimental and numerical study of electromagnetic parameters of planar slow-wave structures for millimeter-wave vacuum electronic devices

摘要

Microfabricated vacuum power amplifiers and oscillators operating at millimeter and submillimeter (THz) bands are ofgreat interest for applications in high-speed communication, radar, security and military systems, electronic warfare, etc.In this work, we report the results of numerical simulation and cold-test measurements of electromagnetic parameters ofthe V-band (50-70 GHz) planar meander-line SWS. The microstrip meander-line SWS is suitable for using in amillimeter-band TWT amplifiers. Several samples of copper microstrip meander-line SWS on a quartz substrateconsisting of 50 meander periods with input and output couplers were designed, microfabricated and optimized. TheSWS was microfabricated by using magnetron sputtering and laser ablation processes. This technique is a more facile,flexible and lower cost as compared to photolithography method. Transmission and reflection of proposed SWS weremeasured experimentally and calculated numerically. The results of the experimental cold-test measurements are verifiedby numerical simulations. Electromagnetic parameters of the SWSs were simulated using the finite-element ANSYSHFSS and COMSOL Multiphysics software packages. The results obtained with these two codes are in excellentagreement with each other and good agreement between experimental and numerical results is also observed.