Development of Fundamental Power Coupler for

C-ADS Superconducting Elliptical cavities

Gu Kui-Xiang1, 2; 1), Bing Feng1, 2, Pan Wei-Min1, Huang Tong-Ming1, Ma Qiang1 , Meng Fan-Bo1
1

Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
2

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Abstract 5-cell elliptical cavities are chosen for the main linac of China Accelerator Driven sub-critical System in
the medium energy section. Each cavity is driven by one fundamental power coupler delivering RF power up to
150 kW. A single window, coaxial type coupler satisfying high power requirements, class 10 clean room assembly
with cavity and low heat load simultaneously was designed. This paper gives the details of RF design, external Q
calculation and thermal analysis as well as multipacting simulations of the coupler.
Key words superconducting elliptical cavity, fundamental power coupler, design, simulation

PACS 29.20.db

Introduction

The China Accelerator Driven sub-critical

System (C-ADS) project is a CW proton linac
consisting of two injector sections and one
main linac. In the main linac, 650 MHz =0.63
and =0.82 5-cell elliptical superconducting
cavities are applied to accelerate the beam
current from the energy of about 180 MeV up
to 1.5 GeV [1]. These cavities are designed to
work at gradient around 15 MV/m with a beam
current of 10 mA [2]. In order to sufficiently
drive the cavities, a Fundamental Power
Coupler (FPC) with the capability to deliver
150 kW RF power in CW is designed. Table 1
shows the main parameters of the cavities and
the FPC.
Table 1: Main parameters of the cavity and FPC

Parameter

Value

Frequency

650 MHz

Beam current

10 mA

R/Q (elliptical 082)

514.6

Peak RF power

150 kW, CW

Coupling type

Antenna

Coaxial line Impedance

50

The design of the coupler is derived from

the FPC for 500 MHz BEPCII SC cavity, on the

Supported by China ADS Project (XDA03020600)

1) Email: gukx@ihep.ac.cn

account of its simplicity in structure and its

capability of operating with high RF power [3].
The main dimensions were rescaled to 650
MHz; some components were redesigned
based on the cryo-module geometry and
assembly procedures; the high Q and high
accelerating gradient of the cavity request that
the coupler should be assembled with cavity in
class 10 clean room; and the high power
requirement limits the use of a dual window
coupler. The above two factors demand that the
vacuum section of the coupler be short enough
for clean assembly. Whereas short vacuum
section will result in excessive heat load. Since
the coupler also acts as a temperature bridge, as
low as possible heat load is desired. The main
challenge was to design a coupler satisfying
high power handling, clean assembly and low
heat load simultaneously.
Thoroughly and carefully simulations were
done to optimize the RF structures, external Q
and mechanical structures. In addition, the
multipacting was simulated and the results
were discussed.

RF structure design
The FPC model is based on a 50 coaxial

23.5 % lower.
The transition from the WR1500
waveguide which connecting to the klystron, to
the coaxial line of the coupler is achieved by a
doorknob configuration. The RF performance
of the doorknob is sensitive to its dimensions.
In order to reach a good impedance matching,
dimensions of the doorknob were optimized,
including the seat height (H), the seat diameter
(D) and the distance from seat to the shot circuit
(L), as shown in Fig. 2.
L

line, including a coaxial planar RF window, a

doorknob transition and an antenna.

WR1500

b
160
with choke
without choke

140

Coaxial line

120

Fig. 2. The model of doorknob and its optimization

E (kV/m)

100

dimensions.

80
60
40
20
0
0

10

20
30
40
50
Distance from the inner conductor (mm)

60

(c)

Further simulations of the integrated

coupler have been carried out. Fig. 3 shows the
calculated S11 curve of the whole coupler. The
S11 is about -35 dB at 650 MHz. And the
bandwidth is about 46 MHz at S11= -25 dB.

Fig. 1. (a) The complex electric field contour of the

window as 150 kW RF power go through: (a)
with choke structure; (b) without choke structure.
(c) The complex electric field on the surface of
the ceramic in this two cases.

RF window is a critical component of the

FPC. It works as a vacuum barrier for the cavity
but let the RF power go through. The window
is made of 97.6% alumina ceramic, brazed to a
specially designed choke structure. The choke
contributes to impedance-matching of the
window. Meanwhile, it reduces local electrical
field on the ceramic-copper weld joints which
may be in dangerous when exposed to high
intensity field. As shown in Fig. 1, the electrical
field on the ceramic surface around the choke
area is lower in contrast with the window with
no choke. Specifically, on the inner conductor
to ceramic weld joint, the electrical field is

Fig. 3. Calculated S11 curve of the FPC ( S11= -35

dB at 650 MHz ).

External Q calculation

The FPCs external Q (Qext) analysis is

explored with Eigen mode solver in CST code.
As the diameter of the beam tube is fixed to 100
mm and the distance from the coupler port to
the cavity is also determined, we can only
obtain the required Qext of 2.8106 (=0.82)
by optimizing the penetration depth and shape
of the antenna tip.
A special cone shape antenna tip with larger

size (Fig.5a) was designed aiming to reduce the

penetration depth. Fig.5b gives the Qext under
different penetration depth. As can be seen, the
corresponding penetration depth was about 5
mm.

heat load to 2K cant meet with the cryogenic

requirement. So, The helium gas cooling was
selected. As shown in Fig. 5, the outer
conductor was designed as a double-wall
stainless steel tube with a spiral flow passage
inside. The 5 K helium gas flow in the tube near
the cold flange and flow out close to the bottom
of the RF window in 300 K.

antenna tip
5-cell elliptical cavity

300 K
helium gas outlet

(a)
1E+07

5K
helium gas inlet

Qext

2.8 E+06

1E+06

Fig. 5. The helium cooling outer conductor.

-5

10

15

20

Antenna penetration depth (mm)

(b)
Fig. 4. (a) CST 3-D model used for Qext analysis
with cone shape antenna tip. (b) Calculated
external Q under different inner conductor
penetration depth into the beam pipe.

Thermal design

4.1 Heat load optimization

As the FPC connects the room temperature
and 2K temperature, as low as possible heat
load to the 2 K helium tank is desired. In our
case, high average power made the dynamic
heat load considerable; meanwhile, short
vacuum section (at the request of clean
assembly ) greatly increased the static heat load.
Therefore, how to reduce the heat load to a
reasonable low level becomes a big challenge.
Firstly, the cooling of the outer conductor
was optimized carefully. Methods of using
thermal anchors and helium gas were explored.
For the FPC which would deliver RF power up
to CW 150 kW, the resistive dissipation of RF
power on outer conductor wall was calculated
to be 11.86 W. Further simulation shows that in
case of the FPC cooled by thermal anchor, the

Secondly, thickness of the copper plating

of the outer conductor, which contributes
dominant static heat load, was selected
carefully. The copper plating should be thick
enough to reduce RF dissipation while
minimally increase thermal conducting
capability of the outer conductor. Based on
simulations, the thickness of the copper plating
layer was chosen as 10 um.
4.2 Thermal-stress analysis
Thermal and mechanical analysis were
performed for each component of the FPC;
moreover, the cooling methods were
determined based on that.
Air cooling was provided on the
atmospheric components of the FPC, including
the doorknob and the air side of the coaxial line.
Fig. 6 shows the temperature contour of the
atmospheric parts with 150 kW RF power
passing through in traveling wave mode.
In the vacuum side, the oxygen-free copper
made inner conductor is water cooled. Water
enters through a tube which extend to the end
of the inner conductor, and flows along the
internal wall of the inner conductor all the way
up to the top of the window, taking away all the
RF joule heat of the vacuum side inner

conductor and a big fraction of the dielectric

loss in the ceramic as well as the RF joule heat
of the atmospheric side inner conductor. To
keep the cooling water temperature rise less

copper weld joints.

than 1C (entering at 25C) with 150 kW RF

power passing through (no reflection), a flow
rate of 2.5 l/min is required.

Simulations of multipacting for the FPC

were performed with MultiPac 2.1, an electron
trajectory tracking code with a 2D FEM field
solver [4]. The analysis was carried out for the
window structure and the coaxial line
respectively. Fig. 8 shows the models and
initial electrons used in the analysis.

Multipacting simulations

MultiPac 2.0

35

34

33

32

31

30

29

28

27

26

25

temperature parts with 150 kW RF power passing

25-Jul-2016

0.1
r axis [m]

36

number of points 10293

0.15

Temperature C

Fig. 6. Temperature contour of the FPCs room

Initial Points

0.05

through in traveling wave mode.

-0.05

-0.1
0.05
MultiPac 2.0
0.12

0.1

0.15

Initial Points

0.2
0.25
0.3
z axis
[m] of points 8760
number

0.35

0.4

09-Aug-2016

0.1

r axis [m]

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

(a)

-0.05

0.05

0.1

z axis [m]

Fig. 8. 2 D models of coaxial line with a taper (top)

and window structure (bottom) for multipacting
simulations. Only the vacuum side of the window
is calculated in the simulations. Those blue circles
represent the location of the initial electrons.
(b)
Fig. 7. (a) Temperature contour of the window
assembly with 300 kW RF power through. (b)
The corresponding maximum principle stress
contour of the window assembly.

Considering that window is the most

important and fragile component, thermal and
mechanical stress analysis were performed
under 300 kW, double nominal RF power. As
Fig. 7 shows, the maximum temperature is
49.6C, located in the middle of the ceramic.
The maximum stress which is less than one
fifth of the flexural strength of the ceramic,
56.9 MPa, appears on the edges of ceramic-

In the simulations, the RF power was swept

from 1 kW to 150 kW with full reflection at
different reflection phases and different
emitting phases of the initial electrons.
The simulation results of the coaxial line
(Fig. 9) show that nearly all of the free
electrons are disappeared after 20 times
impacts and the final residual electrons are less
than initial electrons at each power level below
150 kW. Simulations at different reflection
conditions came to the similar result. These
simulations indicate that there is no multipactor
barrier under 150 kW power for the FPC.

and most resonant secondary electrons impact

on out conductor of the smaller part of the
coaxial line. For the window, in full reflection
case with an electric maximum on the window,
they are about 103 to 105 kW and 145 to 150
kW on the ceramic in a manner of one point of
different orders. The typical electron trajectory
on the window is shown in the Fig. 10: one
order, one points, on the surface of the ceramic.

Fig. 9. The electron counter, the average impact

Fig. 10. Electron trajectories on the ceramic at 146.5

kW.

energy of the last impact in eV and the enhanced

electron counter in a coaxial line with taper. On
the top is the solution with electric walls and on

SUMMARY

the bottom is the solution with magnetic walls.

However, by telling the final impact energy

of the electrons whether in a region of second
emission yield (SEY) bigger than one after 20
times of impacts, we can find the power levels
in which multipacting is more likely to occur.
For the coaxial line, it was about 125 to 150 kW,

This paper mainly reports the general

design and simulations for the ADS 650 MHz
fundamental power coupler. The results of the
analyses will certainly be useful in preventing
the FPC from potential failure, offer guidance
for the RF conditioning and further operations.

Reference
[1] J.Y. Tang et al. Conceptual physics design for the china-ADS LINAC, Proceedings of PAC2016, Pasadena,
CA USA, 2013
[2] LIU Zhen-Chao, et al. An ADS 650 MHz medium beta cavity study and design, Chinese Physics C, 37 (01):
017005 (2013)
[3] Tong-ming Huang, et al. High power input coupler development for BEPC 500 MHz superconducting cavity,
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 623 (2010) 895-902, 2010
[4] Ying-min Li, et al. MultiPac 2.1 - Multipacting Simulation Package with a 2D FEM Field Solver for a
Microsoft Windows System, Proceedings of EPAC08, Genoa, Italy, 2008