An Overview of the New CLIC Test Facility (CTF3)

The CLIC (Compact Linear Collider) RF power source is based on a new scheme of electron pulse compression and bunch frequency multiplication, in which the drive beam time structure is obtained by the combination of electron bunch trains in isochronous rings. The next CLIC TEST Facility (CTF3) at CERN will be built in order to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the scheme. It will also constitute a 30 GHz source with the CLIC nominal peak power and pulse length, for RF component testing. CTF3 will be installed in the area of the present LEP preinjector (LPI) and its construction and commissioning will proceed in stages over five years. In this paper we present an overview of the facility and provide a description of the different components.