Preliminary testing of the LEB to MEB transfer kicker modulator prototype

The extraction kicker for the Low Energy Booster (LEB) is used to deflect a 12 GeV/c proton beam from the synchrotron into a transfer line. A kicker system of similar design is used to inject the beam from the transfer line into the Medium Energy Booster (MEB). The modulator requirements for these kicker systems are to deliver a pulse train of seven 1.6 kA, 2.5 μs pulses at a pulse-repetition frequency of 10 pps, every seven seconds for one hour. The impedance of the modulator is 12.5 Ω resulting in a charge voltage of 40 kV. The 10-90% rise time of the pulses is 20 ns, and the 1-99% fall time is 2 μs. The allowable pulse ripple is ±1% of the peak current during the pulse, and ±0.3% from pulse to pulse. The shot to-shot timing jitter requirement is less than 2ns. This paper describes the design and performance of the prototype modulator which was fabricated to meet these specifications