A New CERN PS Transverse Damper

Since 1999 the PS has been operated without active transverse damping thanks to an increase of the coupling between the transverse planes and the reduction of injection steering errors. Although the LHC requirements are met by these means, a new transverse feedback system has been commissioned to reinforce the robustness of operation and avoid the blow-up generated by residual injection steering errors. This system could also allow the reduction of the chromaticity and reduce the slow incoherent losses during the long PS injection plateau. It could also stabilize the high energy instabilities that appear occasionally with the LHC nominal beam and may be a limiting factor for ultimate LHC beam. Highlights include a signal processing with an automatic delay adapting itself to the varying revolution frequency, a programmable betatron phase adjustment along the cycle, pick-ups that have been re-furbished with electronics covering the very low frequency of the first betatron line and a compact wideband high-power solid state amplifier that drives the stripline kicker via an impedance matching transformer. The overall system is described together with experimental results.