SBIR-STTR Award

The Next Linear Collider (NLC) will require up to 10,000 Traveling Wave Tubes (TWT's) to drive the klystrons which power the accelerator. The commercially available TWT's are military tubes for radar and electronic countermeasures (ECM) that are grossly overdesigned and unnecessarily expensive for low-average power accelerator applications. The purpose of this project is to build and demonstrate an ultra-low-cost TWT that is designed specifically to meet the unique low-average power DOE accelerator requirements. A total cost savings of more than $35M for a 10,000 tube procurement is anticipated. The Phase I project will fabricate and test a prototype of the new TWT. Phase II shall be devoted to design refinements, further cost reduction (electronic gun and rf circuit fabrication) and demonstration of a pilot line to produce 20 TWT's.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
The very low cost of this unique TWT design makes maximum use of the benign environment and low-average power of the DOE accelerator requirement. Although the production TWT will be largely limited to accelerator applications, a number of the design innovations are applicable to both radar and ECM communities.

Existing designs for travelling wave tubes (TWTs) are not well suited to the task of driving the klystron in a modern linear accelerator, like the Next Linear Collider. They are far too complex, exhibit short lifetimes, and cost four times what the mission requires. This project will validate the design of an ultra-low-cost 2 kW X-band TWT by way of actual hardware demonstration and the building and test of both engineering and production prototypes. In Phase I, the engineering prototype was completed and tested at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). In Phase II, the radio frequency design will be refined for full spec performance, further cost reduction, and increased lifetime, and ten engineering and production prototypes will be delivered to SLAC.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
This would be the first TWT designed specifically for long lifetime and a benign environment like an accelerator gallery. It should provide future customers with a low-cost alternative.