U.S. Particle Accelerator School
Accelerator Power Electronics Engineering course
Sponsoring University:
Michigan State University
Course:
Accelerator Power Electronics Engineering
Instructors:
Paul Bellomo and Antonio de Lira, SLAC
Purpose and Audience
This course is an introduction to the field of accelerator power electronics and is suitable for undergraduate students or students from other fields. The course is also appropriate for engineers and technicians working in accelerator-related fields who wish to broaden their background.
Prerequisites
A fundamental understanding of electrical, electronics technology, and mathematical knowledge through basic calculus.
Objectives
This course will focus on the fundamental principles of power electronics circuits and systems used in particle accelerators. The course avoids rigorous mathematical derivations. The instructors present a theoretical understanding of the principals, through daily lectures, coupled with a practical implementation of the concepts through laboratory exercises.
Instructional Method
This course includes a series of lectures in the morning, followed by one or two afternoon laboratory sessions on related subject matter. Laboratory sessions will include computer simulations of power conversion circuits using PSPICE and or MATLAB. Students will write and submit lab reports for the lab exercises. The instructors will assign additional problems, for completion outside of scheduled class time. The instructors will grade the problems and provide feedback in a timely fashion.
Course Content
The lectures begin with a brief historical development of power electronics for accelerators and their past and present applications. The course covers the types of power electronics equipment typically used in accelerators to power magnets for beam shaping and control. The emphasis is on the specification of complete power systems for proper operation of, and matching to, magnet, capacitor, and klystron loads. Examined are circuits for DC magnet applications and pulsed power supplies for septum magnets, kicker magnets, and klystrons using pulse forming networks and newer, solid-state approaches. Reliability and power quality are important. Outlined are methods for availability improvement by component redundancy, input line voltage selection, power factor, electromagnetic compatibility, harmonic distortion, basic feedback, control, and communications. Discussed are the concerns that address personnel and machine protection systems, interlocks and code compliance strategies.
The instructors will closely relate the two afternoon laboratory sessions to the subject matter in the lectures.
Reading Requirements
(to be provided by the USPAS) Elements of Power Electronics by Philip T. Krein, Oxford University Press, Copyright September 1997,
Credit Requirements
The basis for student evaluations are performance; homework assignments (50 % of final grade), computer/lab sessions (20 % of final grade), and a final exam (30% of final grade).