Contribution of LPP/ERM-KMS to the modern developments of ICRH antenna systems

The paper gives an overview of the coupling physics of an ICRF antenna array to the plasma and of the original conceptual solutions proposed by the LPP/ERM-KMS group for the compact ITER antenna array and its matching to the RF power sources. The main contributions are (i) the use of an array of short straps grouped in triplets, (ii) the triplet feed by a four port junction and the use of a service stub to enlarge its frequency response, (iii) the multistep prematching to decrease the VSWR and minimise the voltage in the feeding transmission lines, (iv) the use of a decoupler network to neutralize the mutual coupling effects between different RF power sources and to simultaneously control the current distribution of the antenna array, (v) the various options to connect the decouplers and 3 dB hybrids for different array phasing cases in order to maintain the correct functioning of the decouplers together with load resiliency to fast variations of the plasma density in the edge (caused by e.g. pellet injection or Edge Localized Modes), (vi) the solution of the grounding problem of the ITER antenna plug-in, (vii) the test on mock-ups in front of a dielectric dummy load of the performance of the different solutions and particularly of the automatic matching and decoupling control of the complete ITER antenna array.