Rutambhara Yogi

Tetrode Based Technology Demonstrator at 352 MHz, 400 kWp for ESS Spoke Linac

The European Spallation Source (ESS) will be the worlds most powerful spallation neutron source when it comes in operation at the end of this decade. The ESS linac will accelerate 50mA of protons to 2 GeV in 2.86 ms long pulses at a repetition rate of 14 Hz on a tungsten target for neutron spallation. The linac contains 26 superconducting spoke cavities, which are being developed by IPN Orsay, France, and which accelerate the protons from 90 to 220 MeV. The FREIA laboratory at Uppsala University (Sweden) has developed the required RF power sources, procured the RF distribution and will test the cavities at nominal power. As no suitable amplifier was available at the ESS specifications (352MHz, 400kWp / 20kWavg, pulse width = 3.5 ms, pulse repetition frequency = 14 Hz), various technologies were compared and tetrode technology was selected for the first technology demonstrator RF power station at FREIA. We discuss the design of the technology demonstrator and present the first test results.

A megawatt class compact power combiner for solid-state amplifiers

We propose a compact multiport two-stage combiner capable of handling peak power up to 10 MW at the UHF band and suitable for particle accelerator applications. The detailed electromagnetic and thermal simulations of the combiner operating at the ESS specifications of 400 kW at 352 MHz are presented. At the first stage, the power is combined to a 100 kW level by means of a non-resonant 12-way radial combiner, which is assumed to be fed by 8 kW solid-state amplifiers. At the second stage, a waveguide combiner with T-shape couplers separated by a half-wavelength of the fundamental waveguide mode is used in order to bring the combined power to the required level. The combiner is broadband and has a relative power non-uniformity less than 5% over a 10 MHz frequency band around the central frequency. The size of the proposed combiner is several times smaller than the existing ones. We also present low-power measurement results of a prototype of the radial combiner.