In France, the IPHI demonstrator project (Injector of Protons for High Intensity) is developed by a CEA/DSM – CNRS/IN2P3 collaboration for several applications based on the use of High Power Proton Accelerators. The IPHI RFQ is designed to accelerate a 100 mA proton beam from 95 keV to 5 MeV. The construction of the segmented 8-m long RFQ is under progress. The particles are injected from the SILHI (High Intensity Light Ion Source) ECR source. SILHI has been producing intense beams since 1996. A new extraction system and new control system led to large improvements in term of intensity, beam line transmission, stability. Moreover, automatic restart procedures allow to minimize the beam off time. More than 130 mA are now routinely produced at 95 keV with a proton fraction higher than 80 %. Several long run tests have been performed to measure the source reliability and to improve the mean time to repair. This article will report a summary of the reliability tests pointing out the influence of the lasts improvements. The source will be installed on the IPHI site within the next months. |
