Design and Test of Copper Printed RF Cavities

Abstract

Additive manufacturing of high-quality copper using electron beam melting techniques has demonstrated significant progress toward suitability for production of vacuum electronics components. Additively manufactured low oxygen level copper wafers, as printed and annealed, have been tested in an RF cavity designed for surface resistivity measurements. Strings of coupled cavities for S-band and X-band traveling wave tubes have been designed for vertical additive manufacturing in powder bed systems, enabling significant cost reduction. The S-band RF cavity string design has been additively manufactured, processed and RF tested.