Multiplier Power Supply
SBIR Phase II DOE Research Contract #DEFG-02-02ER83398
Contract Period Calendar Q2 2003 - Q4 2004

Multiple-Concentric Cable
SBIR Phase II DOE Research Contract # DEFG-02-ER-83397
Contract Period: Calendar Q2 2003 - Q4 2004

The klystron department at SLAC has begun development of gridded, sheet beam klystrons for the Next Linear Collider. The new klystron design improves efficiency by avoiding the CV² losses of cathode pulsing. Instead, the grid voltage is pulsed over a much, much smaller voltage range (6 kV). Reducing the pulsed voltage by a factor of ~100 reduces the CV² losses by a factor of 10,000 (into the same capacitance). Reducing the pulsed voltage has the potential to save significant NLC power costs - a 10% improvement in efficiency is worth $45 - 100 million in power savings alone over ten years of operation.

Power Supply
In the first of these SBIR efforts, DTI will develop the power supplies, grid modulator, and fault mitigation and protection circuitry required to drive the new sheet beam klystrons remotely. Concern about CV² losses also requires the klystrons to be co-located with the modulators in order to minimize the cable capacitance associated with transporting 500 kV pulses. The radiation levels near the beamline are too great for high voltage silicon electronics, so the RF output power itself must be transported to the beamline, a very inefficient process.

High Voltage Cable
Under a parallel SBIR contract, and in cooperation with a leading cable manufacturer, DTI is designing the complex, high voltage cable and end connectors needed to pulse these klystrons from the remote power systems. The design is a multiple-concentric, high-voltage coaxial cable that transmits the pulse energy, and carries the grid drive, bias, and filament voltages. It substantially reduces CV² and RF transport losses, while permitting the klystrons' power systems to be located more than 100 feet away from the beamline.

The result of these two proposed efforts, in conjunction with the ongoing sheetbeam klystron development efforts at SLAC, will provide an extremely cost effective alternative to the baseline NLC design.

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Multiplier Power Supply

Multiple concentric high voltage cable assembly.