Bunching system of the KEKB linac

At present, the KEK 2.5-GeV Linac is being upgraded as the injector of the KEK B-factory (KEKB). One of the most important changes is to increase the intensities of positron beams injected into a KEKB ring; it is, therefore, required to accelerate high-intensity single-bunch electron beams to high energy, 3.7 GeV, where they are converted to positron beams. For the purpose, the primary electron bunch should have more than 10 nC. Furthermore, the bunch lengths must be limited as short as 10 ps, in order to achieve narrow energy spreads of primary electron beams, and produce positron beams of short bunch lengths, as well. The bunching system has been designed to meet these requirements, introducing subharmonic bunchers (SHB). This paper describes the upgrade of the bunching system and the results of simulations of bunching using PARMELA. The designs and RF test of SHB cavities are described. (author)