Design of the Synthetic Aperture Microwave Imager Upgrade for measurement of the edge current density on MAST-U

¹ York Plasma Institute, Department of Physics University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK
² Centre for Advanced Instrumentation, Department of Physics Durham, DH1 3LE, UK

^* e-mail: j.allen@york.ac.uk

Published online: 25 March 2019

Abstract

The Synthetic Aperture Microwave Imager (SAMI) has demonstrated the feasibility of 2D Doppler backscattering for measurement of the edge magnetic pitch angle on MAST and NSTX-U. The aim of SAMI-Upgrade (SAMI-U) is to build on this methodology to produce higher quality pitch angle data simultaneously in multiple spatial locations, enabling calculation of the edge current density. This movement from proof of principle to production quality necessitates several alterations to the design. There will be a fourfold increase in the number of antennas, as minimising the sidelobe level is key to ensuring maximum resolution in the reconstructed Doppler backscattered power map. SAMI-U will actively probe the plasma with two frequencies at the same time. These correspond to two different backscattering locations in the edge plasma which allows the edge current density to be calculated from the measured magnetic field vector. Dual-polarised sinuous antennas will be used in the array as they are planar and broadband. Polarisation separation is necessary for differentiation between the O-and X-mode cut off surfaces, as their locations can be separated by up to a few centimetres. Due to spatial constraints many of the components will be placed on a PCB behind each antenna. FPGAs will be used to stream the high data throughput, over 16 GB s⁻¹, into PC memory.