The TRIUMF facility and cyclotron developments

The TRIUMF cyclotron has delivered, over the past several years, simultaneous proton beams to meson users, proton users, and low energy proton users with total intensity around 200 μA at energies between 60 and 500 MeV Since 1998 it has also been delivering routinely 500 MeV protons to ISAC with proton currents up to 40 μA on target. Initial ISAC experiments were performed with singly charged radioactive ions at target/ion-source energies (E ⩽ 60 keV). A cw linac consisting of a 35.4 MHz 8 m long RFQ and a 106 MHz DTL accelerator structure has recently been commissioned to energies between 0.153 and 1.53 MeV/u for ions with A<30. A superconducting accelerator to extend the energy range to 6.5 MeV/u (or higher) has been funded. A charge state booster will extend the mass range from A ⩽ 30 to A ⩽ 150. In order to increase the primary proton beam current for ISAC to 100 μA as planned, and keep up with other user demands, the cyclotron current will be increased to 300 μA within one or two years. Preferably this should be achieved without increasing the activation of the cyclotron tank caused by beam stripping losses, mainly at high energy. Challenging requirements are originating from the T1 meson users, demanding a reduction of the beam pulse duration from 4 ns to 2 ns. A 92 MHz 4th harmonic rf booster cavity located in the high energy acceleration region of the cyclotron has been demonstrated to satisfy both above requirements. A cyclotron refurbishing program, was also initiated to keep reliability at the present 90% level or better