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Klystrons, Traveling Wave Tubes, Magnetrons, Crossed-Field Amplifiers, and Gyrotrons
Answers to RF Cafe Quiz #38
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RF Engineering Quizzes - RF CafeAll RF Cafe Quizzes make great fodder for employment interviews for technicians or engineers - particularly those who are fresh out of school or are relatively new to the work world. Come to think of it, they would make equally excellent study material for the same persons who are going to be interviewed for a job. Bonne chance, Viel Glück, がんばろう, buena suerte, удачи, in bocca al lupo, 행운을 빕니다, ádh mór, בהצלחה, lykke til, 祝你好運. Well, you know what I mean: Good luck!

Click here for the complete list of RF Cafe Quizzes.

Note: Some material based on books have quoted passages.

Return to RF Cafe Quiz #38

RF Cafe Quiz - Klystrons, Traveling Wave Tubes, Magnetrons, Crossed-Field Amplifiers, and GyrotronsThis quiz is based on the information presented in Klystrons, Traveling Wave Tubes, Magnetrons, Crossed-Field Amplifiers, and Gyrotrons, by A.S. Gilmour, Jr., published by Artech House. Note: Some of these books are available as prizes in the monthly RF Cafe Giveaway.

 

1.  What is an important property of a metal to be useful as an electron emission

     source for tube cathodes?

d)  Low work function

The Richardson-Dushman equation shows that to obtain high emission levels, the

work function must be low and the temperature must be high.  (see page 44)

    RF Cafe - Quiz #38, Richardson-Dushman Equation, where J is the current density and eΦ is the work function

 

2.  What is a primary obstacle that must be dealt with when designing a beam

      former for an electron gun?

b)  Inter-electron repulsion forces

Electrostatic repulsion forces between electrons tend to cause the beam to diverge.  (see page 95)

 

3.  Which two forces must be exactly balanced in order to form an electron beam with uniform flux density?

a)  Space charge and centrifugal forces

For a beam with uniform charge density throughout and no magnetic flux through the cathode, the magnetic flux level that produces a magnetic force that exactly balances the space charge and centrifugal forces is called the Brillouin flux level, commonly denoted by BB.  (see page 136)

 

4.  Name the two major classes of linear-beam tubes.

d)  Klystron and traveling wave tube

The klystron is one of two major classes of devices categorized as linear-beam (O-type) tubes. The other is the traveling wave tube (TWT). There are hybrid devices which combine the klystron and TWT technologies.  (see page 237)

 

5.  In which ways can a conventional klystron be tuned?

d)  All the above.

With synchronous tuning, all the cavities are tuned to the same frequency and gain is maximized. For high-efficiency tuning, a klystron is first synchronously tuned and then the penultimate cavity is tuned upward to maximize power. TO broadband tune a klystron, it is first synchronously tuned at a low power level, then the intermediate cavities are detuned downward and upward to achieve the desired bandwidth and gain flatness.  (see page 261)

 

6.  What are the two basic types of traveling wave tubes (TWTs)?

c)  Helix and coupled-cavity

The helix TWT is a relatively low power (10s to 100s of watts) broadband (>2 octaves) device. The coupled-cavity TWT is capable of power of megawatts, but with bandwidth limited to about 10-20%.  (see page 321)

 

7.  What are the two basic kinds of cross-field amplifiers (CFAs)?

b)  Injected beam and distributed emission

In an injected-beam CFA, an electron gun generates a ribbon-shaped electron beam that passes through the device near an RF circuit, similar to a TWT. Like a magnetron, the distributed-emission CFA contains a cathode adjacent to the full length of the RF structure.  (see page 543)

 

8.  What is the primary difference between a gyrotron device and a linear-beam device?

a)  Electrons in a gyrotron rotate along path rather than just linear motion of a linear-beam

The electron gun and beam-focusing fields are designed so that the rotational velocity of the electrons are normally 1.5 to 2 times the axial velocity.  (see page 584)

 

9.  What is one of the most common problems that plague microwave tubes?

d)  Electrical breakdown

Breakdown in microwave tubes may occur inside or outside the vacuum envelope at any of several locations including between electrodes or leads, and from high-power portions of the RF structure.  (see page 701)

 

10.  How is the transition between the vacuum of a tube cavity and the outside world accomplished?

a)  A waveguide or coaxial window.

A dielectric plate provide a environmental seal.  (see page 627)

Quizzes from vintage electronics magazines such as Popular Electronics, Electronics-World, QST, Radio-Electronics, and Radio News were published over the years - some really simple and others not so simple. Robert P. Balin created most of the quizzes for Popular Electronics. This is a listing of all I have posted thus far.

RF Cafe Quizzes

Vintage Electronics Magazine Quizzes

Vintage Electronics Magazine Quizzes
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Webmaster: Kirt Blattenberger
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About RF Cafe

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...

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