Study for a failsafe trigger generation system for the Large Hadron Collider beam dump kicker magnets

The 27 km-particle accelerator Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which will be completed at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in 2005, will work with extremely high beam energies (~334 MJ per beam). Since the equipment and in particular the superconducting magnets must be protected from damage caused by these high energy beams the beam dump must be able to absorb this energy very reliable at every stage of operation. The kicker magnets that extract the particles from the accelerator are synchronised with the beam by the trigger generation system. This thesis is a first study for this electronic module and its functions. A special synchronisation circuit and a very reliable electronic switch were developed. Most functions were implemented in a Gate-Array to improve the reliability and to facilitate modifications during the test stage. This study also comprises the complete concept for the prototype of the trigger generation system. During all project stages reliability was always the main determinant for the chosen circuit design.