Performance of the Crowbar of the LHC High Power RF System

The counter-rotating proton beams in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are captured and accelerated to their final energies by two identical 400 MHz Radio Frequency (RF) systems. The RF power source required for each beam comprises eight 300 kW klystrons. The output power of each klystron is fed via a circulator and a waveguide line to the input coupler of a single-cell superconducting (SC) cavity. Each unit of four klystrons is powered by a -100kV/40A AC/DC power converter. A fast protection system (crowbar) protects the four klystrons in each of these units. Although the LHC RF system has shown has very good performance, operational experience has shown that the five-gap double-ended thyratrons used in the crowbar system suffer, from time to time, from auto-firing, which result in beam dumps. This paper presents the recent results obtained with an alternative solution based on solid state thyristors. Comparative measurements with the thyratron are shown.