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The development of diplexers for ECRH has been pursued at a number of institutes because of their attractive variety of applications: Power combination, non-mechanical, electrically controlled switching (of combined beams) between launchers with tens of kHz, and discrimination of low-power ECE signals from high-power ECRH is feasible. In a first part, this paper reports on plasma experiments with a ring resonator (Mk IIa) at ASDEX Upgrade. Commissioning experiments on fast switching between two launchers for synchronous stabilization of neoclassical tearing modes, as well as in-line ECE measurements have been performed, and experimental issues and first results are discussed. A clear influence of the switching phase on the amplitude of the 3/2 NTM mode was measured, complete stabilization could, however, not be demonstrated yet mainly due to imperfect resonator control. Concepts for improved tracking of the diplexers to the gyrotron frequency are presented. In a second part, the design of diplexers with ring resonators matched to HE11 fields is briefly discussed; these devices can be connected to corrugated waveguides without any mode converters. A compact version (MQ IV) is under investigation, which is compatible with the ITER ECRH system (170 GHz, 63.5 mm waveguide, vacuum tight casing), with the final goal of high-power tests at the 170 GHz gyrotron facility at JAEA in Naka, Japan. First low-power test results are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For electron cyclotron resonance heating of the stellarator W7-X at IPP Greifswald, a 140 GHz/10 MW cw millimeter wave system is in construction. Two out of 12 launchers will employ a remote-steering design. This paper describes the overall design of the two launchers, and design issues like input coupling structures, manufacturing of corrugated waveguides, optimization of the steering range, integration of vacuum windows, mitrebends and vacuum valves into the launchers, as well as tests of prototype parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) is a key component in the heating arsenal for the next step fusion devices like W7-X and ITER. These devices are equipped with superconducting coils and are designed to operate steady state. ECRH must thus operate in CW-mode with a large flexibility to comply with various physics demands such as plasma start-up, heating and current drive, as well as configurationand MHD - control. The request for many different sophisticated applications results in a growing complexity, which is in conflict with the request for high availability, reliability, and maintainability. 'Advanced' ECRH-systems must, therefore, comply with both the complex physics demands and operational robustness and reliability. The W7-X ECRH system is the first CW- facility of an ITER relevant size and is used as a test bed for advanced components. Proposals for future developments are presented together with improvements of gyrotrons, transmission components and launchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characteristics of ring resonator diplexers for high-power ECRH are briefly reviewed. Commissioning experiments performed on ASDEX Upgrade with the diplexer Mk IIa are presented, which demonstrate slow and fast switching of the power between two launchers, and thus the capability for efficient suppression of neoclassical tearing modes and simultaneous central heating of the plasma. The development of the compact diplexer Mk IIIb is discussed, and test results are presented. Finally, an evacuated design for 170 GHz is shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-power resonant diplexers for millimetre waves have various promising applications in ECRH systems. The round-trip resonator length of a diplexer needs to be accurately tuned to match its prescribed functionality. For this purpose one of the mirrors in the FADIS MkIIa diplexer has been mounted on a motion system, in order to control the mirror to its desired location despite the presence of substantial disturbances. The mechanical properties and control strategy for the mirror motion system have been designed such as to meet the overall system requirements. The performance of the motion system has been experimentally validated in various high power mm-wave tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A CW capable inline electron cyclotron emission (ECE) separation system for feedback control, featuring oversized corrugated waveguides, is commissioned on ASDEX upgrade (AUG). The system is based on a combination of a polarization independent, non-resonant, Mach-Zehnder diplexer equipped with dielectric plate beam splitters [2, 3] employed as corrugated oversized waveguide filter, and a resonant Fast Directional Switch, FADIS [4, 5, 6, 7] as ECE/ECCD separation system. This paper presents an overview of the system, the low power characterisation tests and first high power commissioning on AUG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main ECRH scenarios for the W7-X Stellarator are described. Both X2 (low and moderate densities) and O2 scenarios (high density) have been studied. Since O2 scenario cannot be realized without pre-heating, transition from X2 to O2 scenarios has been discussed. Due to a lack of Ohmic transformer, only ECCD is available for compensating the bootstrap current and for controlling the edge rotational transform value. The efficiency of ECCD for all main scenarios has been estimated. All simulations have been performed by a 1D transport code coupled self-consistently with ray-tracing code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) systems for next step-fusion devices like W7-X and ITER operate in CW-mode and provide a large flexibility to comply with various physics demands such as plasma start-up, heating and current drive, as well as configuration and MHD control. The request for many different sophisticated applications results in a growing complexity of the systems. This is in conflict with the request for high availability, reliability, and maintainability, which arises from DEMO demands. 'Advanced' ECRH-components must, therefore, comply with both the complex physics demands and operational robustness and reliability. The W7-X ECRH system is the first CW facility of an ITER relevant size and is used as a test bed for such components. Results on improvements of gyrotrons, transmission components and launchers are presented together with proposals for future developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new generation of compact devices for the combination and the fast switching of high-power millimeter-wave beams [1] for Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) gives the possibility to switch the power (in tens of microseconds) between two lines (or two ECH launchers, even modulating it between them) and combine two gyrotron sources (or in principle even more) in one single transmission line, for doubling the transmitted power. This is useful in many respects in order to: 1) ∼double the efficiency in modulated EC for neoclassical Tearing Modes (NTM) stabilization, 2) avoid to switch-off gyrotrons in conventional (slow) switching, 3) electronically control the power sharing between different applications (heating/current-drive or NTM stabilization), 4) upgrade the existing ECH systems to twice the power without adding complete transmission lines and launchers, 5) test components at a power doubled with respect to the power capability of the available sources. This opens the way to the development of a more effective “active” real-time control of the ECRH power routing and generally to more flexible and powerful ECH systems. The development of different devices and the advantages for (and in view of) ITER are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The HELIAS-type Stellarator Wendelstein 7-X, which is currently under construction in Greifswald, Germany, will be equipped with a 140 GHz, 10 MW, CW ECRH system. It will be the main plasma heating system for W7-X. The key features and capabilities of the ECRH plant will be discussed together with the envisaged start-up and heating scenarios. We also report on the ECRH stray radiation test facility MISTRAL and on the extension of the gyrotron frequency range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) is the main heating system for the W7-X stellarator and the only one for CW-operation in the first stage. The mission of W7-X, which is presently under construction at IPP-Greifswald, is to demonstrate the inherent steady state capability of stellarators at reactor relevant plasma parameters. W7-X is therefore equipped with a superconducting coil system operating at 3 T and a divertor for 10 MW steady state heat removal. A 10 MW ECRH plant with CW-capability at 140 GHz is under construction to meet the scientific objectives. The commissioning of the ECRH plant is well under way, the status of the project and first full power, cw test results are reported. © 2005 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) is the main heating method for the Wendelstein 7-X Stellarator (W7-X), which is the next step device in the stellarator line of IPP and is presently under construction in the Greifswald branch of IPP. The experiment aims at demonstrating the inherent steady state capability of stellarators at reactor relevant plasma parameters. W7-X (major radius 5.5 m, minor radius 0.55 m) is equipped with a superconducting coil system operating at 3 T for steady state operation and a divertor for 10 MW steady state heat removal. A 10 MW ECRH plant with CW-capability at 140 GHz is under construction to meet the scientific objectives. The microwave power is generated by 10 gyrotrons with 1 MW each. A European R&D program aiming at the development of a prototype gyrotron for W7-X has been successfully terminated by fall of 2002. A prototype gyrotron with the same specifications was developed for W7-X at CPI (USA). Test results and limitations are reported. The distinct microwave beams from each gyrotron are combined and transmitted to the W7-X Stellarator ports by an open quasi-optical transmission system with high transmission efficiency, which runs at normal pressure and consists of water cooled imaging mirrors. Cold tests of a full size, uncooled prototype line and the related RF-diagnostics are presented. The microwave power is launched to the plasma through 10 synthetic diamond barrier windows and in-vessel quasi-optical plug-in launchers, which allow an independent steering of each beam. The commissioning of the ECRH plant is well under way and the status is presented. © 2003 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]