Manufacturing and the LLRF Tests of the SANAEM RFQ

TL;DR

This paper details the manufacturing, assembly, and initial low-level RF tests of Turkey's first locally developed RFQ for a proton beamline, demonstrating successful fabrication and testing processes.

Contribution

It presents the first successful manufacturing, assembly, and low-level RF testing of a locally produced RFQ cavity in Turkey, including detailed procedures and results.

Findings

Acceptable manufacturing and assembly errors

Successful initial LLRF tests using phase shift method

Measured cavity quality factor at different RF sealing stages

Abstract

The Turkish Atomic Energy Authority has been working on building an experimental proton beamline using local resources at the Saraykoy Nuclear Research and Training Center (SANAEM). The radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) was manufactured after the completion of beam dynamics and 3D electromagnetic simulation studies. The vanes were machined using a three axis CNC machine. A CMM was used for both the acceptance tests of the vanes and their assembly. Production and assembly errors were found acceptable for this cavity, the very first one developed in Turkey. The aluminum vanes were copper coated by electroplating. The coated vanes were bolted and bonded with eight screws, eight pins and two different adhesives. A silver paste was used for RF sealing and a low vapor pressure epoxy was used for vacuum isolation. First LLRF tests of the RFQ were performed using the phase shift method with a bead-pull setup, a VNA, an N-type RF coupler and a pick-up loop. Cavity quality factor was measured with 3dB method for different RF sealing stages. This study summarizes the machining, assembling and the first LLRF tests of the SANAEM RFQ.