Testing of high current by-pass diodes for the LHC magnet quench protection

Within the framework of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) R&D programme, CERN is performing experiments establish the current carrying capability of irradiated diodes at liquid Helium temperatures for the superconducting magnet protection. Even if the diodes are degraded by radiation dose and neutron fluence, they must be able to support the by-pass current during a magnet quench and the de-excitation of the superconducting magnet ring. During this discharge, the current in the diode reaches a maximum value up to 13 kA and decreases with an exponential time constant of 100 s. Two sets of 75 mm wafer diameter epitaxial diodes, one irradiated and one non-irradiated, were submitted to this experiment. The irradiated diodes have been exposed to radiation in the accelerator environment up to 20 kGy and then annealed at room temperature. After the radiation exposure the diodes had shown a degradation of forward voltage of 50% which reduced to about 14% after the thermal annealing. During the long duration high current tests, one of the diodes was destroyed and the other two irradiated diodes showed a different behaviour compared with non-irradiated diodes.