Construction and 60 kV tests of the prototype pulser for the LHC injection kicker system

The European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) is constructing the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Two counter-rotating proton beams will be injected into the LHC at an energy of 450 GeV by two kicker magnet systems, producing magnetic field pulses of approximately 900 ns rise time and 6.6 /spl mu/s flat top duration with a ripple of less than /spl plusmn/0.5%. Both injection systems are composed of 4 travelling wave kicker magnets of 2.17 m length each, powered by pulse forming networks (PFNs). To achieve the high-required kick strength of 1.2 Tm, for a compact and cost efficient design, a characteristic impedance of 5 Ohms has been chosen. The design strategy for the magnets and generators has been defined after detailed analysis of existing systems. The electrical circuit has been optimised using the circuit analysis software PSpice. Most known parasitics have been modelled. A prototype PFN has been constructed at CERN and successfully tested at 60 kV. A calibration procedure has been developed and utilised for obtaining correction data for a high voltage probe and oscilloscope amplifier. Measurements carried out with a precision of approximately /spl plusmn/0.1% show that the prototype PFN conforms to the specifications and the PSpice predictions.