Initial Testing of Techniques for Large Scale Rf Conditioning for the Compact Linear Collider

Nominal operating conditions for the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) 380 GeV requires 72 MV/m loaded accelerating gradients for a 180 ns flat-top pulse. Achieving this requires extensive RF conditioning which past tests have demonstrated can take several months per structure, when conditioned at the nominal repetition rate of 50 Hz. At CERN there are three individual X-band test stands currently operational, testing up to 6 structures concurrently. For CLIC's 380 GeV design, 28,000 accelerating structures will make up the main linac. For a large scale conditioning programme, it is important to understand the RF conditioning process and to optimise the time taken for conditioning. In this paper, we review recent X-band testing results from CERN's test stands. With these results we investigate how to optimise the conditioning process and demonstrate the feasibility of pre-conditioning the structures at a higher repetition rate before installation into the main linac.