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Claudio Paoloni 1*, Aldo Di Carlo 1°, Francesca Brunetti 1, Mauro Mineo 1, Giacomo Ulisse 1, Alain Durand 2, Viktor Krozer 3, Mikko Kotiranta 3, Anna Maria Fiorello 4, Massimiliano Dispenza 4, Alberto Secchi 4, Vitaly Zhurbenko 5, Faycal Bouamrane 6, Thomas Bouvet 6, Stephan Megtert 6, Emanuela Tamburri 7, Costel-Sorin Cojocaru 8, Aurelien Gohier 8
1 Dept. of Electronic Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133, Rome, Italy
2 Thales Electron Devices, Vélizy, France
3 Physikalisches Institut, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
4 Selex-SI, Rome, Italy
5 Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
6 Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS-THALES et Université Paris sud 11, Palaiseau, France
7 Dept. of Chemical Science and Technology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
8 LPICM – École Polytechnique, (UMR 7647) CNRS, Palaiseau, France
*1 Email: claudio.paoloni@uniroma2.it
°1 OPTHER project coordinator: aldo.dicarlo@uniroma2.it
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Abstract: The THz frequency range represents a true challenge for designers, fabrication technologies and characterization systems. So far, huge technological obstacles have prohibited any system realization different from laboratory one. Furthermore, most of the applications in the THz frequency range require a level of power not achievable by optoelectronic devices at room temperature or by solid-state technology. The recent availability of three-dimensional simulators and high aspect ratio micro-fabrication techniques has stimulated a class of vacuum electron devices operating in the THz regime, to get a level of output power to enable applications at these frequencies. The OPTHER (Optically driven THz amplifier) project, funded by the European Community, is on the road to realize the first 1 THz vacuum tube amplifier. Technology at the state of the art has been used for the realization of the parts with dimensions supporting THz frequencies. A backward wave amplifier configuration is chosen to make the parts realizable. A carbon nanotube cold cathode has been considered for electron generation. A thermionic micro electron gun is designed to test the tube. A novel slow-wave structure (SWS), the double corrugated rectangular waveguide, is devised to support a cylindrical electron beam and to guarantee high interaction impedance with limited losses. Both LIGA and UV SU-8 photolithography have been tested to realize the SWS..
Keywords: Terahertz, Carbon nanotube, Micromachining, LIGA, Vacuum electron device, Backward wave amplifier.
Received: 2011-9-16
Published: 2011-12-31
Acknowledgments: This work has been supported by the FP-7 European Project No. 224356 "OPTHER- Optically Driven THz Amplifiers".
The authors would like to thank Mourad Idir, Pascal Mercère and Paulo Da Silva from the Laboratoire SOLEIL (Saint-Aubin, France) for dedicated beam time allocated to this project and Silvia Orlanducci for the fruitful discussion on the CNTs synthesis
Cite this article:
Claudio Paoloni, Aldo Di Carlo, Francesca Brunetti, Mauro Mineo, Giacomo Ulisse, Alain Durand, Viktor Krozer, Mikko Kotiranta, Anna Maria Fiorello, Massimiliano Dispenza, Alberto Secchi, Vitaly Zhurbenko, Faycal Bouamrane, Thomas Bouvet, Stephan Megtert, Emanuela Tamburri, Costel-Sorin Cojocaru, Aurelien Gohier. (Invited Paper) Design and Fabrication of a 1 THz Backward Wave Amplifier[J]. International Journal of Terahertz Science and Technology, 2011, Vol.4, No.4: 149-163. DOI:10.11906/TST.149-163.2011.12.22
URL: http://www.tstnetwork.org/10.11906/TST.149-163.2011.12.22
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