Future challenges

The paper first reviews the perceived trends and likely developments in particle accelerator applications. The impact on the power converters that will be needed is then examined in closer detail and areas of development that can be expected or which will improve the accelerators’ performances are reviewed. Other lecturers were asked to contribute their thoughts on likely developments in their areas of specialization; where such contributions are used in this paper, due acknowledgement is made. The presentation was prepared in early 2004 and only material on new projects that was publicly available at that time was included. These details have now been incorporated in the text below, which is written in early 2005. During the intervening period, some projects featured in the presentation have changed in technical detail or political support; these changes are not reflected in the text.