Selection of RF Power Source and Distribution Scheme at 352 MHz for Spoke Cavities at ESS and FREIA

Abstract

The report describes selection of RF power source and distribution scheme for spoke cavities at ESS and FREIA.  The European Spallation Source (ESS) is the world’s most powerful neutron source, which contain 36 superconducting spoke cavities at 352MHz and provide power of 0.5MW to the beam. The baseline for the RF system is a point-to-point generation and distribution  from a single source to a single accelerating cavity.The RF system that has to generate this power and distribute it to the accelerating cavities, is a main resource driver for linear accelerators in form of investment, operation and maintenance. Therefore the technical alternatives are compared to minimize capital and running cost of the accelerator, without compromising its reliability. At 352 MHz and 350 kW RF power output, tetrode amplifiers are selected because of their advantages of being cheap, reliable, simple and efficient as compared to the other RF power amplifiers. The tetrodes, due to their low gain, need a pre-driver. The solid state amplifier technology is selected as a pre-driver due to its simplicity, reliability and efficiency. Half height aluminum WR2300 wave guides shall be used for RF distribution. This solution makes it possible to discard the circulator from the RF distribution chain, thus improving system efficiency

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