BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
In the Brookhaven LINAC Isotope Producer (BLIP) facility, a fixed target is bombarded by proton beam to produce isotopes for medical research and cancer treatment. This bombardment process causes spot heating on the target and reduces its lifetime. To mitigate this problem, an upgrade to the beamline has been made by spreading the beam on the target in a circular pattern, which allows the target to heat more uniformly. The beam is steered in a circular pattern by a magnet with orthogonal (X and Y) windings. Each of these two windings is independently powered as part of a resonant circuit driven by a power amplifier. This paper describes the hardware platform used as well as the software implementation of the resonant circuit design and its feedback loops.
