Experimental demonstration of high power millimeter wave gyro-amplifiers

Abstract

The Naval Research Laboratory is currently investigating gyro-amplifiers as high power, broadband sources for millimeter wave radars. A three-cavity Ka-band gyroklystron achieved 225 kW peak output power with 0.82% bandwidth. At W-band, several multi-cavity gyro-amplifiers have been experimentally demonstrated. A four-cavity gyroklystron amplifier has achieved 84 kW peak output power at 34% efficiency with 370 MHz bandwidth. A five-cavity gyroklystron demonstrated 72 kW peak output power with 410 MHz bandwidth and 50 dB saturated gain. For applications requiring greater bandwidth, gyrotwystron amplifiers are also under study. A four section W-band gyrotwystron demonstrated 50 kW peak output power at 925 MHz bandwidth.