SBIR-STTR Award

Future linear colliders will be patterned after the NLC, which will use either a C-Band or S-Band injector system. There are currently no kW level rf amplifiers at either frequency that are both suitable and affordable for driving the 50 to 100 MW klystrons that power the accelerator. An ultra-low-cost TWT was developed on a Phase I/Phase II SBIR to solve this problem for the NLC X-band main accelerator. The proposed grant will leverage off this highly successful program to produce prototype quantities of low cost, long life C and S-band driver TWTs for use by SLAC. The electrical design and layout of the C-band TWT is complete. Phase I of the requested grant will be devoted to the building and testing of four prototype C-band TWTs that will be delivered to SLAC and the electrical design and layout of the S-band driver TWT, to be fabricated, tested and delivered to SLAC in Phase II.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
The resulting low cost, long life pulsed C and S-band TWTs together with a highly successful X-band model will provide DOE with a complete line of accelerator-specific driver amplifiers for future colliders. These amplifiers will be prototypes for numerous civilian and military radar applications.

A family of traveling wave tubes (TWT), capable of outliving a 20-year accelerator, are being mated to power supplies to produce drive power for klystrons for the Next Linear Collider, at about one-tenth the cost of available commercial amplifiers. This project will develop S, X, and C-band TWTs with full specification performance. Low current, long-life cathodes will be evaluated for each band. In Phase I, the C-band TWT was designed, fabricated, and tested to full specification performance. A paper design of the long-life cathodes was carried out. In Phase II, the S-band TWT will be fabricated and tested. A common pulser/power supply will be fabricated, tested, and mated with the S, C, and X-band family of TWTs. Long-life guns for each band will be fabricated and tested.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
Any application requiring long-life, maintenance-free microwave kilowatt level pulse power is a potential application. This would include any accelerator system and some unattended radar applications at low duty levels.