Thanks to generous funding by Italy’s National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and Switzerland’s Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) SESAME is replacing its current Microtron PFN (Pulse Forming Networks) based modulator by two solid state modulators (SSMs).
A contract for the production of these SSMs was signed in February with ScandiNova in Uppsala (Sweden) and delivery is expected in October this year.
This is a major step in refurbishment of the pre-injector (i.e. the Microtron) that started around two years ago in order to improve its performance and increase its reliability.
The Microtron PFN-based modulator is a critical part of the Microtron system that needed to be refurbished, and comes in addition to the auxiliary gun power supply that has recently been replaced by a new modern one designed and built in-house.
Once the new SSMs are installed, all the critical parts of the Microtron will have been refurbished, thus bringing SESAME’s injector to a higher level of performance.