High power and efficiency space traveling-wave tube amplifiers with reduced size and mass for NASA missions

Abstract

Recent advances in high power and efficiency space traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) for NASA’s space-to-Earth communications are presented in this paper. The RF power and efficiency of a new K-Band amplifier is 40 Watts and 50% and that of a new Ka-Band amplifier is 200 Watts and 60%. An important figure-of-merit, which is defined as the ratio of the RF power output to the mass (W/kg) of a TWT has improved by a factor of ten over the previous generation Ka-Band devices.