Use of High-Power Combiners and Fast Directional Switches in ECRH Systems

The new generation of compact devices for the combination and the fast switching of high-power millimeter-wave beams [1] for Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) gives the possibility to switch the power (in tens of microseconds) between two lines (or two ECH launchers, even modulating it between them) and combine two gyrotron sources (or in principle even more) in one single transmission line, for doubling the transmitted power. This is useful in many respects in order to: 1) similar to double the efficiency in modulated EC for neoclassical Tearing Modes (NTM) stabilization, 2) avoid to switch-off gyrotrons in conventional (slow) switching, 3) electronically control the power sharing between different applications (heating/current-drive or NTM stabilization), 4) upgrade the existing ECH systems to twice the power without adding complete transmission lines and launchers, 5) test components at a power doubled with respect to the power capability of the available sources. This opens the way to the development of a more effective "active" real-time control of the ECRH power routing and generally to more flexible and powerful ECH systems. The development of different devices and the advantages for (and in view of) ITER are addressed.