Cyclotrons2016 - List of Authors (Niesler, T.R.)

Paper	Title	Page
WEB01	A New Digital Low-level RF Control System for Cyclotrons	258
	W. Duckitt, J. Abraham, J.L. Conradie, M.J. Van Niekerk iThemba LABS, Somerset West, South Africa T.R. Niesler Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa
	Stable control of amplitude and phase of the radio frequency (RF) system is critical to the operation of cyclotrons. It directly influences system performance, operability, reliability and beam quality. iThemba LABS operates 13 RF systems between 8 and 81 MHz and at power levels of 50 W to 150 kW. A critical drive has been to replace the 30 year old analog RF control system with modern technology. To this effect a new generic digital low-level RF control system has been designed. The system is field programmable gate array (FPGA) based and is capable of synthesizing RF signals between 5 and 100 MHz in steps of 1 μHz. It can achieve a closed-loop amplitude stability of greater than 1/10000 and a closed-loop phase stability of less than 0.01°. Furthermore, the system is fully integrated with the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) and all system and diagnostic parameters are available to the Control System Studio clients. Three prototypes of the system have been in operation since November 2014. A general analysis of RF control systems as well as the methodology of design, implementation, operational performance and future plans for the system is presented.
	Slides WEB01 [3.088 MB]
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Paper

Title

Page

A New Digital Low-level RF Control System for Cyclotrons

258

W. Duckitt, J. Abraham, J.L. Conradie, M.J. Van Niekerk
iThemba LABS, Somerset West, South Africa
T.R. Niesler
Stellenbosch University, Matieland, South Africa

Stable control of amplitude and phase of the radio frequency (RF) system is critical to the operation of cyclotrons. It directly influences system performance, operability, reliability and beam quality. iThemba LABS operates 13 RF systems between 8 and 81 MHz and at power levels of 50 W to 150 kW. A critical drive has been to replace the 30 year old analog RF control system with modern technology. To this effect a new generic digital low-level RF control system has been designed. The system is field programmable gate array (FPGA) based and is capable of synthesizing RF signals between 5 and 100 MHz in steps of 1 μHz. It can achieve a closed-loop amplitude stability of greater than 1/10000 and a closed-loop phase stability of less than 0.01°. Furthermore, the system is fully integrated with the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) and all system and diagnostic parameters are available to the Control System Studio clients. Three prototypes of the system have been in operation since November 2014. A general analysis of RF control systems as well as the methodology of design, implementation, operational performance and future plans for the system is presented.

Slides WEB01 [3.088 MB]

Export •

reference for this paper using ※ BibTeX, ※ LaTeX, ※ Text/Word, ※ RIS, ※ EndNote (xml)