Low-Level Radio Frequency (LLRF) Workshop 2025

Design, characterization and commissioning of X-band LLRF systems for the TEX RF upgrade at LNF-INFN

Oct 14, 2025, 2:55 PM

5m

Newport News Marriott at City Center

Oral or Poster

Speaker

Luca Piersanti (INFN-LNF)

Description

The TEX (Test-stand for X-band) facility at LNF-INFN was established in 2021 and commissioned in 2022. It serves as an R&D center for X-band technology, supporting activities from waveguide component design and high-power testing to low-level RF (LLRF) system development. TEX is equipped with a 50 MW X-band klystron (CPI, USA) powered by a K400 solid-state modulator (ScandiNova, Sweden), operating at a 50 Hz repetition rate. It was recently upgraded with two additional RF high-power sources: a 25 MW, 400 Hz X-band unit and a 20 MW, 400 Hz C-band unit, both manufactured by Canon. This upgrade required a complete redesign of the X-band LLRF system, now featuring: (i) three C-band Libera LLRF systems (Instrumentation Technologies, Slovenia); (ii) an up/down converter, for frequency translation to the European X-band (11.994 GHz); (iii) a reference distribution system, for coherent frequency reference delivery across all the facility sub-systems. The whole LLRF system has been successfully designed, tested and installed at TEX in spring 2025. We report here the first experimental results from low power commissioning started in June 2025.