Study of mutual coupling effects in the antenna array of the ICRH plug-in for ITER

The performance of the ELM-tolerant ‘conjugate T’ (CT) matching schemes considered for the ITER ICRH antenna array has been found highly sensitive to the mutual resistances and reactances between antenna straps, which can produce large exchanges of active power between circuit branches. A general analysis is given of the effect of mutual coupling on the matching of a single CT and on the simultaneous matching of several coupled CT circuits. Circuit configurations optimizing the resilience of the system to realistic ELM-induced load variations are given in the case of a single CT. Problems arising from the interaction between several CTs and possible remedies are discussed.