The application of saturating inductors for improving the performance of the CERN PS kicker systems

Kicker magnets are used for injection and extraction in the CERN PS. The addition of the LHC facility to the complex of accelerators at CERN requires an improved performance of the existing kicker magnet systems in the CERN PS. The injection kicker field must rise and fall from approximately 1% to 99% of full strength during the 96 ns time interval between bunches, whereas the extraction kicker field must rise from approximately 0.5% to 99.5% of full strength during a gap of 121 ns created in the beam. The kicker magnet systems require pulse forming network (PFN) voltages of up to 80 kV. Displacement current arising from the turn-on of a multi-gap thyratron can significantly increase the effective rise-time of the kick. Saturating inductors can be used to reduce both the effect of the displacement current and the rise-time of the main current pulse. This paper describes the results of measurements on a system which includes saturating inductors. Some of the measurements are compared with theoretical predictions.