Upgrade and Tests of the SPS Fast Extraction Kicker System for LHC and CNGS

A fast extraction kicker system has been installed in the SPS and successfully used in extraction tests in 2003. It will serve to send beam to the anticlockwise LHC ring and the CNGS neutrino facility. The magnets and pulse generators have been recuperated from an earlier installation and upgraded to fit the present application. Hardware improvements include diode stacks as replacement of the previous dump thyratron switches, a cooling system of the magnets, sensors for its ferrite temperatures and magnetic field quality assessment. In preparation of the future use for 450 GeV/c transfer to LHC and double batch extraction at 400 GeV/c for CNGS the tests comprised extractions of single bunches, twelve bunches in a single extraction and single bunches in a double extraction. The measured kick characteristics of the upgraded system are presented, along with a discussion of Pspice simulation results. Further improvements will be discussed which are intended to make the system comply with the specifications for CNGS.