Testing of the Prototype Receiver for ITER ECE Diagnostic

The Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) diagnostic system in ITER provides essential information for plasma control and for evaluating the plasma performance. It measures the electron temperature profile (edge/core), electron temperature fluctuations and radiated power in the electron cyclotron frequency range from the plasma. Virginia Diodes Inc. (VDI) has designed and developed a stateof-the-art prototype receiver to detect emission in the 200-300 GHz frequency range. The prototype receiver developed by VDI has been tested at DIII-D tokamak to check its performance by measuring higher frequency ECE harmonics in high temperature plasmas. Bench testing verifies the receiver’s band coverage and noise temperatures. Good sensitivity has been obtained meeting the ITER requirement. Also, the receiver performance is assessed for ITER by comparing the data from the receiver and the existing Michelson interferometer for the same DIII-D plasma shot. The measurement results show that the receiver provides accurate temperature information for the plasma emission throughout the frequency band.