Precise verification of phase and amplitude calibration by means of a debunching experiment in SIS18

Several new rf cavity systems have to be realized for the FAIR synchrotrons and for the upgrade of the existing GSI synchrotron SIS18 [1]. For this purpose, a completely new low-level rf (LLRF) system architecture [2] has been developed, which is now used in SIS18 operation. Closedloop control systems stabilize the amplitude and the phase of the rf gap voltages. Due to component imperfections the transmission and the detection of the actual values lead to systematic errors without countermeasures. These errors prohibit the operation of the rf systems over the whole amplitude and frequency range within the required accuracy. To compensate the inevitable errors, the target values provided by the central control system are modified by socalled calibration electronics (CEL, [3]) modules. The calibration curves can be measured without the beam, but the desired beam behaviour has to be verified by experiments. For this purpose, a debunching scenario was selected as a SIS18 beam experiment that proved to be very sensitive to inaccuracies. In this contribution the results of this experiment are presented, showing for the first time at GSI by beam observation that the accuracy requirements are met based on predefined calibration curves