KISS conditioning of the LHC injection kickers

During routine operation the LHC injection kickers (MKI) will only be used during a short interval of time at the beginning of each LHC cycle, which will then last for several hours. During the LHC ramping and coasting the kickers cannot be pulsed: some high voltage de-conditioning may occur during this time, which could affect the high voltage performance of the kicker magnets at the next injection. Hence restarting the MKI pulsing immediately at its nominal voltage, after several hours of inactivity, may constitute a significant risk of sparking in the magnets and thus deterioration of the magnets and could hence cause major downtime for the LHC machine. To reduce this risk considerably a "KISS" (Kicker Injection Soft Start) process has been implemented into the system and will be executed before each injection run, thus being carried out in parallel with all the other LHC setting-up procedures prior to beam injection. During the "KISS" process, the kickers will automatically be pre-conditioned, under software control via the CCC, and the MKI magnets operated up to a voltage slightly beyond their nominal high voltage operating point. The "KISS" process is based around the known and proven "Automatic Magnet Conditioning" process specifically designed for the MKI kicker magnets.