The AGS Central RF Power Amplifier

The AGS central RF power amplifier has logged over 6000 hours of accelerator service at normal beam energies, intensities, and duty cycle. The twelve orbital cavities are driven by remote ferrite-coupled final amplifier stages through long matched pairs of coaxial cables from a central RF building. The final stage inputs are paralleled in groups of six for energizing by a pair of identical drivers which, in turn, are parallel-excited from a smaller predriver. There are no tuned stages. Wide-band coupling is achieved throughout the amplifier with ferrite networks. A common dc anode rectifier in the same building powers the driver and final stages. Cavity tuning and AGC loop commands are generated at the output terminals of the final stages. The design, construction, and performance of the new amplifier are discussed.