High Performance Triggering Transformer for Stack of Series Connected Thyristors

The Large Hadron Collider is the world biggest and highest energy proton accelerator/collider. It is built on Switzerland/France border some 100 m underground. Its circumference is 27 km and it will accelerate up to 4×1014 protons per beam up to a peak energy of 7 TeV. Under these conditions, the energy of each beam will be more than 360 MJ. Safe dumping of the beam with such energy is crucial for the safety of the accelerator. The LHC beam dumping system consists of 30 extraction and 20 dilution generators and their associated magnets and delivers altogether more than 1 MA. Switching is performed by a stack of ten series connected GTO like thyristors. Stack triggering is ensured by a trigger transformer with eleven individual electrically insulated secondary's and a common primary coil driven by two power triggering modules.