DC power supply to drive W-band gyrotron travelling wave amplifier for satellite uplink and wireless communication applications

The backbone network in future telecommunication systems will move from copper and fibre to mm-wave wireless connections, allowing rapid deployment, mesh-like connectivity with fast data rates of tens of gigabits per second for future mobile applications such as cloud computing, big data, virtual reality and the Internet of Things. The main restriction in the uptake of mm-wave wireless mobile communications is the challenge in forming the mm-wave backhaul links due to the lack of high power (kilo-watt) wideband mm-wave amplifiers.

The gyro-amplifiers developed under STFC IPS Project (ST/P001890/1) offers a unique opportunity to fill a long standing gap in the generation of high power coherent millimetre wave radiation with its amplification with an unprecedented 6% instantaneous bandwidth and an unrivalled power of 3.4kW at 93 GHz. For satellite communications the gyro-TWA has the power at W-band frequencies to overcome attenuation due to rain and moisture in the atmosphere while possessing sufficient bandwidth (6%) for high data rate transmission to multiple satellites.

Building on the recent success of W. He, C. R. Donaldson, L. Zhang et al PRL 2017, 119 no. 18, p. 184801, and L. Zhang, C. R. Donaldson et al IEEE Electron Device Letters 2018, vol. 39, no. 7, pp. 1077-1080 where short pulse (sub-microsecond) 93GHz gyro-TWA operation was demonstrated the procurement of a 60kV, 1.2A DC power supply is required to enable continuous wave gyro-TWA operation which will result in a paradigm shift in what is achievable for ground based, cellular telecommunications networks and satellite communications.