Contract awarded for GSI-FAIR accelerator facility project

We are excited to announce that JEMA has won the tender contract for CNRS France for the realization, delivery and commissioning of 33 power converters for the proton LINAC of Germany’s FAIR international accelerator facility.

FAIR facility overview

FAIR stands for Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research. This accelerator facility provides beams of antiprotons and ions with highest intensities, energies and power in brilliant quality. FAIR is a multipurpose and worldwide unique accelerator facility allowing a large variety of unprecedented fore-front researches in physics and applied science.

Today, a new part of the facility is being built including, among other things, a p-LINAC.

System Overview

A significant part of the experimental program at FAIR is dedicated to antiproton physics. Antiprotons in FAIR will be used for two types of experiments:

• High energy experiments in the High Energy Storage Ring (HESR), namely PANDA (Proton Antiproton Annihilations at Darmstadt)
• Low energy experiments in the FLAIR (a Facility for Low-energy Antiproton and Ion Research) cave

In the FAIR Modularized Start Version (MSV) only PANDA is foreseen as a user of antiprotons. The antiproton will be produced by shooting a short intense proton bunch with 28 GeV on a copper target.

A dedicated proton LINAC of 68 MeV final energy, SIS18 is used for acceleration to 4 GeV and SIS100 for an acceleration to 27.6 GeV. The proton beam is foreseen to be generated in an ECR type proton source and a proton current of up to 100 mA can be extracted at 95 keV.

The subsequent Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT) is based on two-solenoid magnetic focusing and provides the required separation of H3+, H2+, and H2 fractions from the proton beam. Bunching and acceleration to 3.0 MeV will be accomplished in a ladder type 4-rod RFQ preceded by an electrostatic chopper.

Role of JEMA

JEMA will provide a total of 33 power converters that will power the different magnets of the new FAIR proton LINAC facility: 25 power converters will be used for powering quadrupole magnets and 8 for powering the steerer magnets.

More precisely, we will provide 17 cabinets including:

• 12 power converters of 60V – 1000A
• 12 power converters of 105V – 1000A
• 1 power converter of 120V – 400A
•  8 power converters of 24V – 250A

All 33 converters providing 1×10-4 long term stability and precision. Moreover, each power converter will be designed according to customer requirements.