E-Band Meander Line Slow Wave Structure for Traveling Wave Tubes for Space Applications

E-band (71 - 76 GHz, 81 - 86 GHz) is gaining high interest for Low Earth Orbit satellite constellations. The available 10 GHz bandwidth split in two 5 GHz sub-band for downlink and uplink provides a substantial increase of capacity in comparison to the K-band and Ka-band presently used. The high link attenuation requires high transmission power, not achievable by solid state power amplifiers, that is compensated by antennas with high gain and large diameter. Traveling wave tubes are a promising solution to provide high transmission power for LEO satellite transmitters. A meander line slow wave structure to enable E-band TWT for space application is discussed. The meander line has been fabricated and measured with very good agreement with the simulations. Meander lines are easy to fabricate, low weight, compact, able to support a low beam voltage making them a suitable solution for compact and light weight space TWTs for LEO satellite constellations.