UKRI-2453 ISIS Linear Accelerator – RF Amplifier

Tender description

ISIS, sited at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), is the world’s most productive pulsed neutron source. Intense bursts of neutrons are produced at 20mS intervals when a heavy metal target is bombarded by a high-energy (800 MeV) proton beam from a synchrotron accelerator releasing neutrons by the process of spallation. Lot 1: It is a RF Amplifier requirement for the linear accelerator that is the subject of this tender exercise. The final amplifier in the current Linear Accelerator systems uses a thermionic triode valve (tube) that is coming to the end of its production life and a replacement for the amplifier is required to ensure continued operation of the facility. The existing amplifier is operated at ~2 MW full output, but due to recent development work the facility is now able to operate with a lower peak power of an estimated 1.6 MW maximum on two of the systems, the remaining two systems still requiring ~2 MW.