Millimeter-wave Imaging Technology Advancements for Plasma Diagnostics Applications PDF Download

Author: Xiangyu Kong
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781303153808
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Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
To realize fusion plant, the very first step is to understand the fundamental physics of materials under fusion conditions, i.e. to understand fusion plasmas. Our research group, Plasma Diagnostics Group, focuses on developing advanced tools for physicists to extract as much information as possible from fusion plasmas at millions degrees. The Electron Cyclotron Emission Imaging (ECEI) diagnostics is a very useful tool invented in this group to study fusion plasma electron temperature and it fluctuations. This dissertation presents millimeter wave imaging technology advances recently developed in this group to improve the ECEI system. New technologies made it more powerful to image and visualize magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) activities and micro-turbulence in fusion plasmas.Topics of particular emphasis start from development of miniaturized elliptical substrate lens array. This novel substrate lens array replaces the previous generation substrate lens, hyper-hemispherical substrate lens, in terms of geometry. From the optical performance perspective, this substitution not only significantly simplifies the optical system with improved optical coupling, but also enhances the RF/LO coupling efficiency. By the benefit of the mini lens focusing properties, a wideband dual-dipole antenna array is carefully designed and developed. The new antenna array is optimized simultaneously for receiving both RF and LO, with sharp radiation patterns, low side-lobe levels, and less crosstalk between adjacent antennas. In addition, a high frequency antenna is also developed, which extends the frequency limit from 145 GHz to 220 GHz. This type of antenna will be used on high field operation tokamaks with toroidal fields in excess of 3 Tesla.Another important technology advance is so-called extended bandwidth double down-conversion electronics. This new electronics extends the instantaneous IF coverage from 2 to 9.2 GHz to 2 to 16.4 GHz. From the plasma point of view, it means that the instantaneous spatial coverage is doubled without compromising the spatial resolution. Other related technology advances, including frequency selective surfaces, beam splitters, ultra wideband baluns, pre-amplification scheme, are addressed in less detail. Finally, the Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) radiometer system on the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) is discussed.