Requirements for an Inductive Voltage Adder as Driver for a Kicker Magnet with Short Circuit Termination

At CERN pulse generators based on Thyratron switches and SF6 gas filled pulse forming lines, used for driving kicker magnets, are to be replaced with semiconductor technology. Preliminary investigations show the inductive voltage adder is suitable as a pulse generator for this application. To increase the magnetic field without raising the system voltage, a short-circuit termination is often applied to a kicker magnet. Because of the electrical length of a transmission line magnet, wave propagation needs to be considered. To allow for the wavefront reflected from the short-circuit termination back to the generator, a novel approach for an inductive adder architecture has been investigated. It is based on a modified generator interface, circulating the current back into the load, until the stored energy is absorbed at the end of the pulse. This approach allows for a smaller magnetic core size compared to a conventional design with a matched load. Moreover, it enables more energy-efficient operation involving smaller storage capacitors. This paper summarizes the conceptual design features and furthermore gives an overview of the parameter space for possible applications at CERN.