Automatic Measurement and Error Analysis of Microstructures of Multi-Period Folded Waveguide

Herein, we reported the novel technique for full-and semi-automatic measurement of the microstructures of multi-period folded waveguide (FWG) of traveling wave tube (TWT) .The dimensions of the microstructure of W-band FWG slow wave structure, including, but not limited to the period length, groove's depth/width/steepness, straight-edge length, e-beam channel radius, surface roughness of serpentine-groove bottom and assembly hole size, were precisely measured with video measuring microscope, tool microscope, laser confocal microscope and altimeter;and the measured results were processed with self-developed data-analysis programs.Moreover, the measurement errors were analyzed.The test results show that the measurement accuracy (time) can be controlled to within 1.5 μm (60 min) .We suggest that the new time-saving, high-efficiency measurement method be of some technological interest in production of FWG-TWT.