Modular Resonant 25 kV - 8 A Power Converter for Particle Accelerator Application: Realisation and Operation

This paper presents the realisation of a 25 kV DC 200 kW power converter designed at CERN to supply radio frequency (RF) amplifiers for a particle accelerator application. The architecture is based on an N+1 redundant and modular structure in order to increase the availability of the system. The converter topology is a resonant LCC full-bridge inverter supplying a step-up medium-frequency transformer and a high voltage rectifier. It focuses on the hardware and control implementation, and how the resonant circuit can naturally achieve a smooth transition in case of module failure.These new power converters have been used in operation during two years and the design has proven its reliability. They are able to provide twice the power of the previous converters, and therefore allow the RF cavities to cope with the higher beam intensity required by the CERN LHC Injectors Upgrade project (LIU). [1]