According to DARPA, vacuum electron devices (VEDs) are critical components for defense and civilian systems that require high power, wide bandwidth, and high efficiency, and there are over 200,000 VEDs currently in service.
While most VEDs in common use today (traveling wave tubes (TWTs), klystrons, crossed-field amplifiers, magnetrons, gyrotrons and others) were invented in the first half of the 20th century, ongoing, intense development efforts have produced dramatic advances in their performance and reliability.
Space-qualified TWTs are used for nearly all satellite communications and are demonstrating in-orbit mean time to failure of over ten million hours with power efficiencies greater than 70%. VED amplifiers also can exhibit wide operating bandwidths of over three octaves, and high output power levels up to thousands of watts from a single device. These characteristics make vacuum electronics the technology of choice for numerous military, civilian, and commercial radio frequency (RF) and microwave systems.”
A new program called Vacuum Electronic Science and Technology or INVEST looks to build systems that support higher operation RF signals that are “louder” and thereby harder to jam and otherwise interfere with. DARPA says higher frequency operation brings with it vast swaths of previously unavailable spectrum which opens the way to more versatile communication, data transmission and other capabilities that will be beneficial in both military and civilian environments.
The INVEST program aims to strengthen the science and technology base for new generations of vacuum tubes operating at millimeter-wave frequencies above 75 GHz.
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Reposted via Next Big Future
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