Design of a remote steering antenna for ECRH heating in the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X

摘要

For the ECRH heating system of the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X, two remote steering antennas are developed and manufactured. The principle of remote steering antennas is based on the imaging characteristics of corrugated rectangular waveguides, which is well understood and can accurately be simulated. Several details, however, require deeper investigation. The antenna needs a miter-bend and a 24 mm gap. The positions of these elements need to be chosen carefully to reduce losses and stray radiation. The antennas are manufactured from copper by electroforming. This allows to integrate all components, including the corrugated inner walls and the cooling channels, in one vacuum-tight piece. This paper reviews the design process of the remote steering antennas for W7-X as well as technological issues and experimental results from test pieces. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.