Performance of the Large Hadron Collider's Cryogenic Bypass Diodes Over the First Two Physics Runs, Future Projects, and Perspectives

Cryogenic bypass diodes have been installed in all superconducting dipole magnets (1232) and quadrupole magnets (392) of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, and operated during the physics runs since 2009. The bypass diodes are a fundamental ingredient of the quench protection system for those main dipoles and quadrupoles magnets. The diodes are located inside the magnet cryostats, operating in superfluid helium and exposed to ionizing radiation. The connection between the superconducting magnet and the bypass diode is made through a mechanical clamping system and copper bus bars. Since their first installation, all LHC diodes have undergone at least two full thermal cycles (from 1.9 K to room temperature and back to superfluid helium temperature). The evolution of electrical parameters as well as improvements and modifications made over a period of 10 years are reviewed in this paper. With CERN preparing for LHC's High Luminosity era, the long-term strategy for cold diodes is presented, based on the overall results and experience gathered so far, including the studies related to the tolerance with respect to the radiation doses and neutron fluences expected

Experimental Setup to Characterize the Radiation Hardness of Cryogenic Bypass Diodes for the HL-LHC Inner Triplet Circuits

For the high luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), it is planned to replace the existing triplet quadrupole magnets with Nb₃Sn quadrupole magnets, which provide a comparable integrated field gradient with a significantly increased aperture. These magnets will be powered through a novel superconducting link based on MgB₂ cables. One option for the powering layout of this triplet circuit is the use of cryogenic bypass diodes, where the diodes are located inside an extension to the magnet cryostat and operated in superfluid helium. Hence, they are exposed to radiation. For this reason the radiation hardness of existing LHC type bypass diodes and more radiation tolerant prototype diodes needs to be tested up to the radiation doses expected at their planned position during their lifetime. A first irradiation test is planned in CERN's CHARM facility starting in spring 2018. Therefore, a cryo-cooler based cryostat to irradiate and test LHC type diodes in-situ has been designed and constructed. This paper will describe the properties of the sample diodes, the experimental roadmap and the setup installed in CHARM. Finally, the first measurement results will be discussed

Beam impact experiment of 440 GeV/p protons on superconducting wires and tapes in a cryogenic environment

The superconducting magnets used in high energy particle accelerators such as CERN’s LHC can be impacted by the circulating beam in case of specific failure cases. This leads to interaction of the beam particles with the magnet components, like the superconducting coils, directly or via secondary particle showers. The interaction leads to energy deposition in the timescale of microseconds and induces large thermal gradients within the superconductors in the order of 100 K/mm. To investigate the effect on the superconductors, an experiment at CERN’s HiRadMat facility was designed and executed, exposing short samples of Nb-Ti and Nb$_3$Sn strands as well as YBCO tape in a cryogenic environment to microsecond 440 GeV/p proton beams. The irradiated samples were extracted and are being analyzed for their superconducting properties, such as the critical transport current. This paper describes the experimental setup as well as the first results of the visual inspection of the samples

Characterisation of the radiation hardness of cryogenic bypass diodes for the HL-LHC inner triplet quadrupole circuit

The powering layout of the new HL-LHC Nb$_3$Sn triplet circuits is the use of cryogenic bypass diodes, where the diodes are located inside an extension to the magnet cryostat, operated in superfluid helium and exposed to radiation. Therefore, the radiation hardness of different type of bypass diodes has been tested at low temperatures in CERN’s CHARM irradiation facility during the operational year 2018. The forward characteristics, the turn on voltage and the reverse blocking voltage of each diode were measured weekly at 4.2 K and 77 K, respectively, as a function of the accumulated radiation dose. The diodes were submitted to a dose close to 12 kGy and a 1 MeV equivalent neutron fluence of $2.2 \times 10^{14}$ n/cm$^2$. After the end of the irradiation campaign the annealing behaviour of the diodes was tested by increasing the temperature slowly to 300 K. This paper describes the experimental setup, the measurement procedure and discusses the results of the measurements

HiLumi Photo Contest 2018: The Beauty of Engineering

Photo contest organized by the HL-LHC Project Office from 3rd to 28th September 2018, with the participation of amateur photographers willing to share their perspective on HiLumi. The contest was open to the members of the HL-LHC project and to the members of the CERN Photo Club, with photos in the following categories: - i. HL-LHC: Pushing the boundaries of Science and Technology - ii. HL-LHC: Teams at work - iii. HL-LHC: Tooling and Infrastructures - iv. HL-LHC: Equipment in construction