17–22 May 2026
C.I.D
Europe/Zurich timezone

High-Power Testing of X-Band High-Gradient Structures and RF Components at the Mel-BOX Facility

TUP7602
19 May 2026, 16:00
2h
C.I.D

C.I.D

Deauville, France
Poster Presentation MC7.T06: Normal Conducting RF Poster session

Speakers

Joel Valerian (The University of Melbourne) Matteo Volpi (The University of Melbourne)

Description

Mel-BOX, the reinstallation of half of CERN’s XBOX3 test stand, has been operating at the University of Melbourne’s X-LAB for over few years. The facility provides 12 GHz high-power pulsed RF for testing high-gradient travelling-wave accelerating structures and associated X-band components relevant to the CLIC baseline.
Two TD24 structures, previously conditioned at CERN and stored for five years, were successfully reconditioned and tested at Mel-BOX, demonstrating that prolonged storage does not significantly degrade high-gradient performance. Additional high-power RF campaigns were carried out on a compact pillbox-type RF window supporting travelling-wave fields in the ceramic, high-power loads fabricated using 3D-printed titanium and long stainless-steel sections, and a set of SLED-I pulse compressors featuring a newly designed removable copper tuning plate. Each pulse-compressor cavity was independently tuned prior to conditioning, enabling stable operation and reproducible pulse compression during high-power tests.
These activities establish Mel-BOX as a dedicated and mature X-band platform for advancing high-gradient accelerator technology and supporting the development of compact accelerator systems for medical, industrial, and scientific applications.

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Author

Matteo Volpi (The University of Melbourne)

Co-authors

Joel Valerian (The University of Melbourne) Paarangat Pushkarna (The University of Melbourne) Paul Giansiracusa (The University of Melbourne) Roger Rassool (The University of Melbourne) Rohan Dowd (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) Suzanne Sheehy (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) Yaw-Ren Eugene Tan (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation)

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