LANL, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) is currently upgrading the existing emittance stations with a high-density instrumentation system for emittance measurements in the low energy beam transport region. Emittance measurements were obtained using obsolete legacy equipment. For motion control a switching station with a mechanical mux to switch actuators was used. This caused a single point of failure for all emittance stations and is becoming increasingly unreliable. For data acquisition, two sets of signal conditioning and digitizers were employed and had to be shared between 7 emittance stations. Physical cable swapping was necessary when taking measurements from station to station. A system was developed using dedicated Quad Actuator Controller (QAC) chassis, capable of driving four (4) actuators, and dedicated data acquisition (DAQ) chassis capable of signal conditioning and digitizing up to 80 channels simultaneously. Details of the system development are presented.
LANL, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
High density instrumentation has been developed to upgrade wire scanner beam diagnostic capability in all areas downstream of the Coupled Cavity LINAC (CCL). Transverse beam profile measurements were originally obtained using legacy electronics known as Computer Automated Measurement and Control (CAMAC) crates. CAMAC has become obsolete, and a new wire scanner diagnostic system was developed as a replacement. With high wire scanner device density located in each area, instrumentation was developed to meet that need along with the ability to interface with legacy open-loop controlled actuators and be forward compatible with upgraded closed-loop systems. A high-density system was developed using a Quad Actuator Controller (QAC) and Data Acquisition (DAQ) chassis that pair together using a sequencer when taking measurements. Software improvements were also made, allowing for full waveform functionality that was previously unavailable. Deployment of 52 wire scanner locations in 2022 increased device availability and functionality across the facility. Hardware and software design details along with results from accelerator beam measurements are presented.
LANL, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center’s (LANSCE) Accelerator Operations and Technology division group executed a project that implemented a new analog front-end card (AFE) for their wire scanner’s Data Acquisition (DAQ) system. The AFE accommodates the signal amplification and noise reduction needed to acquire essential measurement data for beam diagnostics for the LANSCE accelerator. Wire Scanners are electro-mechanical beam interceptive devices that provide cross-sectional beam profile measurement data fitted to a Gaussian distribution that provides beam shape and position information. The beam operators use the beam shape and position information to adjust parameters such as acceleration, steering and focus on delivering an optimized beam to all targets. The project implemented software and hardware that eliminated the dependency on legacy systems and consolidated various AFE designs for diagnostics systems into a single design with 11 gain settings ranging from 100 nA to 40 mA at 10 V full scale to accommodate future applications on other diagnostic systems.