Extension of the high current power supplies of ASDEX Upgrade—The design of a new thyristor converter

Abstract

A number of 17 high current thyristor converters with an installed pulsed power of about 600 MVA feed the complex system of copper magnet coils, which induce the plasma current and provide positioning, shaping and ohmic heating of the plasma.At the moment currents of up to ±45 kA and voltage levels of up to ±3 kV are possible for max. 10 s. But no currently available converter can reach all these parameters at the same time. To achieve this goal a new thyristor converter group, called “Group 7”, to work in conjunction with the actual “Group 6”, is planned.This paper describes the design of the converter. Since the design of the power section will be in most parts a copy of the already existing converter “Group 6”, the focus in this paper will be on the control system. A completely new design using a fully digital control system will be implemented. This paper also introduces the new FAST communication protocol and its aimed features and performance used for the control system.