Fast Kicker Driver for International Linear Collider Damping Rings

The very demanding requirements of the International Linear Collider (ILC) will require the development of solid-state kicker drivers. The ILC will use ¿damping rings,¿ and the cost of each damping ring will depend strongly on the speed of these kickers. This project will investigate two approaches to the development of the solid state kicker driver: the first will utilize commercially available MOSFETs, and the second will employ Step Recovery Diode (DSRD) technology. In Phase I, the performances of the HV MOSFET and the DSRD were compared. Because the latter exhibited pulse lengths of 2-to3 nanoseconds, the DSRD was selected for the final stage of the pulse generator. Measurements confirmed that HV MOSFET technology ¿ as opposed to Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) technology ¿ would be appropriate for generating the 25-nanosecond pump pulses that drive the pulse compression circuitry and the DSRD switch. In Phase II, the semiconductor processing and packaging methods for the required high-current, high-voltage DSRD diode stacks will be developed. The pump circuit and pulse compression network required to build a prototype kicker pulse generator will be developed concurrently with the DSRD semiconductor processing. The performance of a composite system ¿ designed to deliver 5kV, 2 nanosecond pulses to a 50 Ohm load, according to the ILC pulse protocol ¿ will be demonstrated. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The solid state kicker driver should enable the precise kicker operation needed to handle the desired ILC bunch spacing and energy. A secondary benefit will be the development of reliable, solid-state kicker pulsers which can meet the needs of a wide range of other kicker driver applications in existing and planned accelerators, synchrotrons, and other particle physics systems.