MICROWAVE TUBES

Introduction
Microwave tubes are constructed to overcome the
limitations with conventional tubes and UHF tubes.
Principle of Operation:-
The basic principle of operation of microwave tube
involves transfer of power from a source of DC
voltage to source of AC voltage by means of a current
density modulated electron beam.
The same can be achieved by accelerating electrons in
a static electric field and retarding them in an AC
field.
Contd..
The density modulation of the electron beam allows
more electrons to be retarded by ac field than accelerated
by dc field, which therefore makes possible a net energy
be delivered to the ac electric field.
Classification of microwave tubes:-
The classification is based on different factors.
Their mechanism of producing density modulation.
The acceleration and retardation of electrons in the ac field.
Important types are:-
Klystron amplifier (two cavity,multy cavity)
Klystron oscillator (reflex klystron)
Magnetron
TWT
KLYSTRON
A klystron is a specialized linear-beam vacuum tube,
invented in 1937 by American electrical
engineers Russel and Sigurd Varian, which is used as
an amplifier for high radio frequencies, from UHF up
into the microwave range or generator of power at mw
frequencies.

Two Cavity Klystron Amplifier

Two cavity klystron amplifier is basically a
velocity modulated tube.
Construction:-
Here a high velocity electron beam is formed , focused
and sent down along a glass tube through an input cavity
(buncher ), a field free drift space and an output cavity
(catcher ) to a collector electrode.
The anode is kept positive potential with respect to
cathode.
The electron beam is passed through the gap A .
The input and output is taken from the tube via resonant
cavities with the help of coupling loops.

Two cavity klystron amplifier
OPERATION
Operation can be best explained by the help of apple
gate diagram
Contd
Initial stage
At point B on the input RF cycle, the alternating voltage is
zero and going to be positive.
At this instant, the electric field across gap A is zero and an
electron which passes through the gap A is unaffected by the
RF signal.
Let this electron is called the reference electron eR and travels
with an unaffected velocity v0 = .
Where V is the anode to cathode voltage

Contd
Second stage
At point C of the input RF cycle again we are passing
electron called late electron el as compared to the reference
electron.
the late electron is subjected to maximum positive RF voltage
and hence travel towards gap B with an increase velocity than
V0 (V>V0 ) , and these electron overtakes reference electron.
Similarly an early electron ee that passes thorough the gap A
slightly before the reference electron is subjected to the
maximum negative field.
So these electron travels with the reduced velocity than v0.
Later these electrons ee are catch up by reference electron.
As a result of these actions the electrons in the bunching limit
gradually bunch together as they travel down in the drift
space from gap A to B.
The drift space converts the velocity modulation into current
modulation.
Performance characteristics:-
1. Frequency : 250MHz to 100GHz.
2. Power : 10 kW 500kW
3. Power gain : 15dB 70 dB.
4. Theoretical efficiency : 58%.
Applications :-
1. As power output tubes
I. In UHF TV transmitters.
II. In troposphere scatter application
III. Radar transmitters
2. As power oscillators.

Two cavity Klystron Amplifier
Multicavity Klystron
The problem associated with the two cavity klystron
amplifier is that the gain is about 10 to 20 dB.
A higher overall gain can be achieved by connecting several
two cavity tubes in cascade manner.
Instead of these multiple cavities can be used as shown
below,
Contd
Here each of the intermediate cavities act as a
buncher.
With four cavities power gain of 50 dB can be easily
achieved.
The cavities can be tuned to the same frequency.
Applications:-
These are employed in UHF klystron for TV
transmitters
In satellite earth station transmitters.
Two Cavity Klystron Oscillator
Klystron amplifier can be converted into oscillator by
feeding back a part of catcher output to into the buncher in
proper phase.
But the feed backing should be satisfy Barkhausen criterion.
A = 1
The schematic is same as of amplifier expect the feedback
need to be added.
The feedback must be adjusted to give correct polarity and
amplitude which is basically depends on cavity tuning.
The criterion for oscillation is given by

Where + /2 is the phase angle difference between buncher and catcher
cavity.
is the total phase shift between resonator and the feedback cable.
Contd
If the value of is zero means the oscillations are in
phase.
The maximum power output is obtained at this condition.
Also when a small change in the de accelerating voltage
it cause change in the frequency since transit angle
varies.
Tuning of the oscillator is done by adjusting the grid
voltage, accelerating voltage and tuning the cavities.
High frequency oscillations are obtained by controlling
the temperature of the resonators.
Buncher
The cathode controls the number of electrons in the electron
beam and focuses the beam. The voltage between the
cathode and the cavity resonators (the buncher and the
catcher, which serve as reservoirs of electromagnetic
oscillations) is the accelerating potential and is commonly
referred to as the beam voltage. This voltage accelerates the
DC electron beam to a high.