Continuing production of the DBS band, 1,250 watt peak power superlinear® helix TWT

Throughout 2016, Communications and Power Industries (CPI) has been continuously manufacturing the VTU-6398D9C: a compact, high peak power, high linear power, high efficiency, and conduction-cooled helix vacuum electron device. The TWT was developed in 2015 to serve the burgeoning DBS Satcom market. As the number of units produced grew in 2016, and continues to grow, CPI has learned the new product has very repeatable performance and can be produced with a high yield. However, the higher volume has revealed a few areas where improvements can be made to tighten distributions at the subassembly and piece part level. These adjustments and refinements have been put in place and are producing new results. Performance margins are increased and unit to unit variations are decreased. Higher volume rates in 2017 can be realized.