Smart Microwave Vacuum Electron Device (MVED) Using Field Emitters.

摘要

A Crossed-Field Amplifier and related components were designed and tested. The device did not show gain. The inability to achieve gain is believed to be related to two causes: insufficient beam current and backward wave modes from the slow wave circuit. ICEPIC modeling of the device showed issues with backward waves, but modifications to the circuit design and CFA operating parameters did not change performance. The field emission arrays intended for the experiment did not meet specifications, so alternative field emission cathodes were used. While these new cathodes provided more current, high voltage arcing problems have limited their use. The distributed cathode part of the program was very successful as electron hop funnels were demonstrated and modeled. The modeling effort has provided tremendous insight into secondary emission hopping mechanism. These results will be used for future work not only in hop funnels but also dielectric charging in high voltage vacuum devices.