The new 1-18 MHz wideband RF system for the CERN PS Booster

The LHC Injectors Upgrade (LIU) project at CERN prepares the injectors to meet the requirements of the High Luminosity LHC. For protons, it includes the new Linac4, PS Booster (PSB), PS and SPS. Among the major changes concerning the PSB, the extraction energy increase from 1.4 GeV to 2 GeV and the higher beam intensity, made possible by the Linac4 together with the new charge exchange injection system into the PSB (2E13 protons), strongly affect the RF system requirements. To deal with this more demanding beam operation, a new RF system was designed. It is based on modern magnetic alloy loaded cavities driven by solid-state amplifiers. Its wideband frequency response (1 MHz to 18 MHz) covers all the required frequency schemes. This new RF system has been produced in 2017 and 2018; installation is planned during 2019, the first year of Long Shutdown 2 (LS2) and commissioning is foreseen in 2020. Most of the production and testing was outsourced to industry; parts acceptance, cavities assembly and pre-testing was done in-house. A quality assurance plan was established to achieve the required high reliability. This paper describes the procurement, production and testing strategies and methodologies. It also reports the achieved results, system performances and relevant statistics.