Design and performance of high voltage power supply with crowbar protection for 3-Φ high power rf amplifier system of cyclotron

Abstract

The superconducting cyclotron at VECC consists of three rf cavities separated at 120° and each cavity is fed power from an individual rf amplifier, based on a tetrode tube, in the frequency range of 9–27 MHz. All the three tetrode tubes are powered by individual power supplies for their biasing which are fabricated and commissioned with the rf system of the cyclotron. The dc power to the anodes of all three tubes is fed from a high voltage power supply rated at 20 kV dc, 22 A along with suitable interlocks and crowbar protection. The tubes are protected by a single ignitron based crowbar system against an internal arc fault by diverting the stored energy very fast, minimizing the deposited amount of energy at load and allowing the fault to clear. The performance and protective capability of the crowbar system is demonstrated by using wire survivability test. The design criteria of anode power supply along with the crowbar protection system, in-house development, testing and performance is presented in this paper.