U.S. Particle Accelerator School
Accelerator Power Electronics Engineering
Sponsoring University:
Northern Illinois University
Course Name:
Accelerator Power Electronics Engineering
Instructor:
Paul Bellomo and James Sebek, SLAC National Accelerator Lab
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
Completion of one or more courses in basic electronics and algebra. A working knowledge of calculus and some familiarity with the LTSPICE and/or MATLAB circuit simulation programs are helpful.
It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that they meet the course prerequisites or have equivalent experience.
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 will present a theoretical understanding of the principals, through daily lectures, coupled with a practical implementation of some of the concepts through laboratory exercises.
Instructional Method
This course includes a series of daily lectures in the morning. On one or two days, afternoon laboratory sessions, on related subject matter, follow the morning sessions. Laboratory sessions will include computer simulations of power conversion circuits using LTSPICE and or MATLAB. Students might be required to write and submit reports for the lab exercises. The instructors will closely relate the one or two afternoon laboratory sessions to the subject matter in the lectures. 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 in 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 AC power fundamentals, circuits for “warm” and superconducting DC magnet applications, and an introduction to pulsed power supplies for septum magnets, kicker magnets, and klystrons using pulse forming networks and newer, solid-state approaches. Instructors and students discuss input line voltage selection, power factor improvement, electromagnetic compatibility, harmonic distortion, basic feedback, control, and communications. Reliability and power quality are important. Outlined are methods for availability (reliability) improvement by component redundancy. Instructors briefly addressed concerns for personnel and machine protection systems, interlocks and code compliance strategies.
Reading Requirements
(to be provided by the USPAS) "Fundamentals of Power Electronics" (second edition) by Robert W. Erickson and Dragan Maksimovic, Springer 2012.
Suggested reading (not mandatory) prior to the class: “Power Electronics” by Daniel W. Hart, Valparaiso University, McGraw-Hill, 1st edition."Elements of Power Electronics" by Philip T. Krein, Oxford University Press, 1997 or "Principles of Power Electronics", by John Kassakian, Addison-Wesley, 1991. "Power Electronics: Converters, Applications, and Design" (third edition) by Ned Mohan, University of Minnesota, 2003.
Credit Requirements
The basis for student evaluations are performance; homework assignments (80% of final grade), and a computer/lab session (20% of final grade).
Northern Illinois University course number: PHYS 790D - Special Topics in Physics - Beam Physics
Indiana University course number: Physics 671 "Advanced Topics in Accelerator Physics"
Michigan State University course number: PHY 963
MIT course number: 8.790 "Accelerator Physics"