In-port-plug transmission line design of the ITER plasma position reflectometer

Abstract

This work describes the microwave design of the transmission line housed in the in-port-plug region of the ITER plasma position reflectometer (PPR). The design of the components of the in-port-plug reflectometers (located in equatorial port-plug 10 (EPP10) and in upper-port-plug 01 (UPP01)) is presented. Using a 3D ray tracing code, the spatial position and optimum orientation angles of each set of emission and detection antennas were determined. A feasible path was then created from the obtained antenna positions and orientations to the primary vacuum window. Oversized tall waveguides were chosen to reduce ohmic losses. Due to space constraints in the ITER crowded environment, bends in oversized waveguides were unavoidable, and thus mode conversion was produced. To keep mode conversion losses at bay, hyperbolic secant curvature bends had to be used whenever possible. However, E-plane bends in tall waveguides proved to be especially critical, making it necessary to employ other approaches when higher bending angles were needed. Mode conversion results were obtained by evaluating the mode coupling equations. Ohmic losses have also been computed and their results compared with commercial simulators, obtaining a perfect agreement.