Solid State Switch Application for the LHC Extraction Kicker Pulse Generator

A semiconductor solid state switch has been constructed and tested in the prototype extraction kicker pulse generator of CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) [1]. The switch is made of 10 modified 4.5 kV, 66 mm symmetric GTO's (also called FHCT-Fast High Current Thyristor), connected in series. It holds off a d.c. voltage of 30 kV and conducts a 5 µs half-sine wave current of 20 kA with an initial di/dt of 10 kA/µs. Major advantages of the switch are the extremely low self-firing hazard, no power consumption during the ready-to-go status, instantaneous availability, simple condition control, very low noise emission during soft turn-on switching and easy maintenance. However, the inherent soft, relatively slow turn-on time is a non negligible part of the required rise time and this involves adaptation of generator components. A dynamic current range of 16 is achieved with variations in rise time, which stay within acceptable limits. Important generator improvements have been made with the series diodes and freewheel diodes. A more efficient droop compensation circuit is being studied. It is directly connected in series with the freewheel diode stack and maintains an acceptable flattop variation of 5% of the magnet current during 90 µs. This paper presents the complete generator, in particular the solid state switch and discusses related electrical measurements.