Amith Narayan

Amith Hulikal Narayan is a Member of Technical Staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he works on accelerator RF systems at the Spallation Neutron Source. His work is focused on high-power RF systems for plasma generation, accumulator ring RF systems, RF controls, high-voltage RF isolation, impedance matching, RF reference-system stability, and reliability improvements for accelerator operations.

Narayan’s recent work includes development and testing of a pulsed 27 MHz RF plasma ignition system for the SNS H⁻ ion source. This effort moves the starter-plasma RF approach from continuous-wave operation toward short, synchronized RF pulses, reducing average RF power and limiting unnecessary RF and plasma activity outside the beam-production window, including unwanted beam-related effects/dark current. The work also supports improved ion source operation by reducing reflected-power exposure, lowering gas-flow burden, and eliminating the need for H₂ puffing during ignition.

He also supports the SNS accumulator ring RF systems, including RF cavities, high-power RF hardware, power supplies, low-level RF and control interfaces, and cavity tuning systems. His work in this area focuses on operational reliability, troubleshooting, controls integration, dynamic tuning, and RF system improvements that support higher beam-power operation.

In addition, Narayan works on RF reference-system stability and controls integration. One of his projects, Reference-Line Signal-Level Stability Through Environmental Control and EPICS Integration, addressed environmentally driven signal-level drift in the Master Oscillator reference-line support system by integrating airflow control, temperature and humidity monitoring, RF/reference-signal monitoring, Python automation, IOC integration, and EDM operator interfaces into the SNS EPICS controls environment.

Narayan received his B.E. in Telecommunications Engineering from R.V. College of Engineering, Bengaluru, India, in 2011, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2020. His doctoral work focused on high-efficiency megawatt-class RF power circuits for mobile ionospheric heating. Before joining ORNL, he worked in the semiconductor industry at Wipro and AMD on wafer-level testing, mixed-signal test development, RTL debug, functional verification, and microprocessor design verification, including verification work on low-power AMD microprocessor cores used in major gaming-console platforms such as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

He has authored or co-authored 26 technical publications in RF and microwave engineering, including high-power RF systems, accelerator RF, plasma ignition, and megawatt-class RF power circuits. His long-term technical interest is in high-power RF systems for next-generation high-intensity accelerators.

Awards and Recognition

Narayan received the George Corcoran Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching from the University of Maryland Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2020. He also received the Best Student Paper Award at the University of Maryland Graduate Research Interaction Day in 2016 for “Constant Impedance Tunable IOT Power Extraction Circuit.”

Professional Service

Narayan is an IEEE Senior Member and is active in IEEE MTT-S, IEEE NPSS, and the IEEE Council on RFID. His IEEE service includes Senior Member evaluation activities, Region 3 involvement, and service as Electronic Information Committee Editor for the IEEE MTT-S Technical Coordination and Future Directions Committee. He also mentors students and early-career engineers in RF, accelerator systems, and engineering career development.