MICROWAVE VACUUM TUBES

The vacuum tube is still in RF power applications, especially for microwaves. Examples are magnetron,
klystron and travelling-waves tube (TWT). These tubes are used for high-power microwave amplifies and
oscillators. A magnetron operating in the pulse mode can produce megawatts of peak power for a radar
transmitter. The TWT is generally used as a linear amplifier of microwave signals in satellite
communications.

Magnetron
The tube is a diode; it has anode and a heated cathode. The anode is a metal block with machined
cavities. The cavity dimensions determine the frequency of oscillation.
A heater wire passes through the cylindrical cathode in the center of the tube to produce
thermionic emission of electrons. The anode has positive dc voltage. As a result, electrons from the
cathode are attracted to the anode.
The path of the electronics is cycloidal because there are two forces acting on the electrons. The
forces result from crossed electric and magnetic fields within the tube. In fact, the name magnetron comes
from the magnet. The electric field is a result of the potential difference between anode and cathode
provided by the dc supply voltage. The electric field alone tends to produce straight-line motion from
cathode to anode the magnetic field alone produce circular motion. The result of combining the two
motions is cycloidal path for the electrons accelerated towards the anode.
Because of the cycloidal motion, the electrons are alternately accelerating and decelerating. When
the electrons are decelerating, they must give up some of their energy as their velocity is reduced. A
magnetron is designed to allow the electrons to pump energy into the cavity.
The electric and magnetic fields are adjusted to make the length of the cycloidal loops equal to
twice the distance between the cavity openings. Each cavity is a resonator. The spacing makes adjacent
cavities have out-of-phase oscillations. The cavity oscillations produce fields that alternately accelerate
and decelerate the electrons. As a result, the entire process is regenerative; positive feedback reinforces
the oscillations. Probe coupling from one of the cavities provides the means to release the microwave
energy from the magnetron tube.
The process of accelerating and decelerating the electrons is called velocity modulation. The
velocity of the electrons stream is alternately increased and decreased; the period is comparable with the
total transmit time. This is the general principle of microwave tubes.

Klystron
A thermionic cathode at the left releases a stream of electrons attracted to the positive collector electrode
at the right end of the tube. The stream passes through two cavities called a buncher and a catcher, so this
type is a two-cavity klystron.
Now let an input signal be applied to the buncher. The ac signal sets up oscillations in the cavity.
The cavity oscillations provide reversals within the interior to bunch and expand the electrons. As the
velocity-modulated electron stream moves toward the collector, the electrons gain energy because of the
acceleration by the positive voltage. Finally, the electron stream moves through the catcher cavity. There
the electrons are decelerated; they give up some of their energy to the catcher. As a result, the output
probe at the catcher has an amplified version of the input signal applied to the probe at the buncher. The
klystron is being used as a microwave amplifier. It can be used as an oscillator, though, by feeding some
of the amplified output signal at the catcher back to the input at the buncher.

Reflex
Klystron
The
reflex
klystron is used
as an oscillator. No external feedback is necessary, because the reflex klystron provides its own internal
feedback. Here a single resonant cavity is used instead of the buncher and catcher. Also, a repeller
electrode replaces the collector. The repeller is used to turn back the velocity-modulated electrons so that
they can give up energy to the cavity. That feature provides the feedback required for oscillations. The
reflex klystron oscillator cannot develop the high power of magnetrons, but it has applications in
microwave equipment at moderate signal levels.

Traveling-wave tube
A problem with magnetrons and klystrons is that they have very high Q because they have resonant
cavities. As a result, the bandwidth may be too narrow for some applications. When a bandwidth greater
than 10 percent of the resonant frequency is desired, the traveling-wave tube is often used. Thermionic
emission is used to produce electrons. The electrons are attracted to the positive collector electrode at the
right end of the tube. The signal to the left. Amplified signal is taken from the wave-guide output at the
right.
The input signal travels along the helix inside the tube. The helix maybe thought of as a special
coaxial transmission line with large inductance per unit length. The inductance provides the coaxial
circuit with a phase velocity much less than that in free space. In fact, the input signal is slowed down to

match the velocity of the electron beam heading toward the collector. As the beam and the input signal
move together, their fields interact to produce velocity modulation of the electrons.
Bunching of the beam results as more electrons are decelerated than accelerated. Then there is a
net transfer of beam energy to the electromagnetic signal in the helix. That effect allows an amplified
version of the input signal to be taken from the output waveguide. The travelling-wave tube, therefore, is
a useful microwave amplifier. It can also serve as a microwave oscillator by returning some of the output
signal to the input.

MICROWAVE SEMICONDUCTOR DIODES

The first solid-state devices used in microwave field were point-contact diodes developed for
radar system in early 1940s. They served as detectors for microwave signals and mixers in frequency
conversion. Transistors were not widely applied in microwave equipment until the 1970s. At first, their
frequency response was not high enough. Now, however, great advances have made transistors just as
useful in high-frequency applications as in lower-frequency ones. Germanium, silicon, gallium arsenide,
and indium phosphide are the semiconductor materials used for microwave diodes and transistors.

Point-Contact Diode
The point contact diode consists of a very thin wire in contact with a semiconductor. The diode is a oneway conductor that serves as a detector. Because of the small contact, its capacitance is low current
ratings. It should not be checked with an ohmmeter, since excessive current can damage the contact.

Schottky Diode
The Schottky diode replaces the more fragile point-contact diode. It also has a metal-to-semiconductor
junction. The metal is the anode, which forms a rectifying junction to the semiconductor. The cathode is
just an ohmic connection. Because of its construction, the Schottky diode operates only with electrons as
the majority carriers. There is no hole current.
The result is a frequency response that is good enough for microwaves. A diode of the Schottky
type is also called a hot-carrier diode or barrier diode.
The packages for microwave diodes must be small to keep inductance and capacitance as low as
possible. A Schottky diode is only 2.5 mm in diameter by 1.3 mm. The leads are designed to be soldered
into a microstrip circuit.

Tunnel Diode

A small PN junction is used with a very high concentration of doping. The density of impurities makes
the depletion zone very thin. When a low voltage is applied, a relatively large amount of charge carriers
can tunnel through the junction easily. Those features are:
1. The forward current decreases as the forward voltage increases in one section of the curve. The
phenomenon is called negative resistance, because under normal conditions current increases as
voltage increases.
2. There is appreciable reverse current with a small amount of reverse voltage.
3. There is no offset in diode voltage, because current flows with any amount of forward or reverse
voltage.
Those features are used for microwave detectors and oscillators. The negative-resistance
characteristic is utilized in the diode oscillator. In the application of a tunnel rectifier, the diode is
used as a backward detector. The reverse characteristics provide very good frequency response with
low noise. Also, there is no voltage offset, which allows detection of small signal levels.

Gunn Diode
The Gunn diode is one of a group of microwave diodes in which electromagnetic interactions and transit
time within bulk semiconductors are used. It incorporates the transferred-electron effect: electrons move
through different areas in the bulk material with different mobilities. The transit time from input to output
determines the operating frequency, which is in the gigahertz range. A popular application of Gunn diodes
is in microwave oscillators. Typical frequency ranges are 6 to 18 GHz at a power rating of 50 mW for CW
transmission. The power rating is much greater for pulse operation.
The bulk semiconductor material is generally indium arsenide or gallium phosphide, which can
provide a high-electron-drift velocity for operation at microwave frequencies. Additional types that make
use of the bulk effect and transit time in the semiconductor are the IMPATT, TRAPATT, and BARITT
microwave diodes. Those diodes have higher power ratings than the Gunn diode. All of them have the
negative-resistance characteristic, which means they can be used as diode oscillators.

PIN Diode
The abbreviation PIN indicates an intrinsic (I) or undoped layer between P and N semiconductors. The
intrinsic layer decreases the capacitance of the diode, which makes it useful for microwaves.
PIN diodes can be used to switch paths for microwave signals. Forward bias turns the diode on so
that it can allow a microwave signal to pass. Reverse bias makes the diode have high impedance to block
the signal path.
The PIN diode is also used to attenuate microwave signals. Its intrinsic layer gives it a
characteristic like a resistor at higher frequencies. Networks of series and parallel PIN diodes used with
bias components provide an electronic method of variable signal attenuation. Similar designs are used for
amplitude modulation of microwave signals.