May the 4th be with GSI and FAIR!

On the occasion of Star Wars day on May the 4th: Don’t get confused, at RI we are not stabbing our pulsed power systems with yellow light sabers.
What you see here is how we make use of a grounding stick, the bringer of safety and peace-of-mind for every high voltage engineer throughout the galaxy. This grounding stick is used at one of the Injection Kicker pulse generators for GSI that our team in Dortmund have been working on. They will be the central particle injection tool in the SIS100 ring accelerator of FAIR.
Building on a GSI concept, RI (responsible for the pulsed power & control system) and Danfysik (specializing in the vacuum tank & magnet) collaborated over past few years to develop and successfully realize the first of a series kicker system.

Using the Force, which we all know as an energy field created by all living things, that surrounds and penetrates us all, might have been a wise way of approaching such an endeavor. Unfortunately, no significant concentration of Midichlorians was found among us humble RI people, so we had to rely on classical Maxwell field theory to realize a solution with the following key facts:

• Pulse forming line pulser using thyratrons as main switches
• Operating voltage: 40kV – 80kV
• Magnet current: 3.5kA – 7.0kA
• Rise and fall times: <180ns
• Pulse flat top times: 0.5µs – 2.0µs
• Repetition rate: <4Hz
• Aperture B-field: ~114mT
• Vacuum pressure: ~ 3e-11 mbar

After completing a thorough testing phase for the initial system in the series, we started our series production of all six pulse generators in 2023. Currently, these generators are entering their final testing phase. All generator cabinets have been fully manufactured, and the first two cabinets have been undergoing long-term tests under full power for the past couple of weeks.
Now, we are very much looking forward to completion of the final tests and the ultimate delivery of the full SIS100 Injection Kicker System to GSI.
Remember: The Force (or Maxwell) will be with you, always!