Low Level RF (LLRF) control systems of linear accelerators (LINACs) are typically implemented with heterodyne based architectures, which have complex analog RF mixers for up and down conversion. The Gen 3 RF System-on-Chip (RFSoC) device from AMD Xilinx integrates data converters with maximum RF frequency of 6 GHz. That enables direct RF sampling of C-band LLRF signal typically operated at 5.712 GHz without RF mixers, which can significantly simplify the system architecture. The data converters sample RF signals in higher order Nyquist zones and then up or down converted digitally by the integrated data path. The closed-loop feedback control firmware implemented in FPGA integrated in RFSoC can process the baseband signal from the ADC data path and calculate the updated phase and amplitude to be up-mixed by the DAC data path. We have developed an LLRF control RFSoC platform, which targets Cool Copper Collider (C3) and other C or S band LINAC research and development projects. In this paper, the architecture of the platform and the test results for some of the key performance parameters, such as phase and amplitude stability with our custom solid-state amplifier, will be described.

We present a high-performance solver for the magnetostatic equations. The solver can simulate nonlinear and anisotropic magnetic materials on a highly variable grid, enabling efficient resolution of fine features even in very large systems. It is built on the Tpetra parallel sparse linear algebra package, allowing it to handle problems with billions of degrees of freedom and employ hardware acceleration with Nvidia graphics processing units. Integration into the VSim electromagnetics software allows users to design magnetic systems using existing graphical interface features. Example simulations of nonlinear magnets, with application to particle accelerator magnet design, will be shown.

The design and study of the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) present a significant challenge, requiring the proper modeling of various physical phenomena such as the crab-waist collision scheme with a large Piwinski angle, strong nonlinear effects, energy sawtooth, beam-beam interactions, and machine impedances. In response to this challenge, the APES software project was proposed in 2021 and received support from the IHEP Innovative Fund in 2022. This paper provides an overview of the progress made in the APES project, encompassing modeling for special cases, orbital and spin tracking with synchrotron radiation, optics and emittance calculation, particle tracking, and more. Additionally, the paper discusses future developments.

Prior to assembly into the operational cryostat each superconducting undulator (SCU) at the Advanced Photon Source undergoes testing in a LHe bath cryostat where coil training and magnetic measurements are performed. If necessary, the baseline magnetic measurements are used for phase error tuning which is achieved by adjusting the magnetic gap of the SCU at prescribed locations. An optimization routine using a genetic algorithm is used to determine the magnitude of the gap change. Once complete, the SCUs are incorporated into the production cryostat and magnetic measurements of the final assembly are performed. Details of the process during phase error tuning and LHe bath testing of a 1.5 m-long SCU magnet are presented.

Particle accelerators use high field quality magnets to steer and focus beams. Normal conducting magnets commonly use soft iron for the yoke, which is subject to hysteresis effects. It is common practice to use an initialization procedure to accomplish a defined state of the magnet for which its hysteresis behavior must be known. In this article, a variation of the scalar Jiles-Atherton model with an improved physical basis called the Extended Jiles-Atherton (EJA) model is employed to predict the B-H trajectories in a Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS) magnet. Simulations are conducted using COMSOL Multiphysics using the external material feature to integrate EJA model with the Finite Element Method (FEM). Results from the experimental studies conducted on a magnet prototype are also presented. Finally, potential improvements in the model and extension to the case of a two-dimensional anisotropic material are discussed.

Advances in high-performance computing have enabled detailed physics simulations, including those with nonlinear collective effects such as space charge, to be deployed online in a control room setting to aid operator intuition and be used directly in automatic tuning. Simultaneously, machine learning (ML) has enabled deployment of detailed models online with sub-second execution time, opened up new avenues for adapting simulation models to more closely match real accelerator behavior, and enabled novel ways to combine detailed physics simulations and ML-based tuning. This contribution will provide an overview of how these tools are being developed and successfully applied at SLAC, with an emphasis on experimental demonstrations. This includes improvements in adaptive calibration methods, novel approaches to simulation (e.g. differentiable physics combined with ML), and the use of system models in ML-based tuning (e.g. Bayesian optimization with system model priors, iterative simulation and ML tuning to aid LCLS-II injector commissioning). Discussion of the software infrastructure required to achieve this and deploy these solutions into regular operation will also be discussed.

Efficient operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) relies on accurate longitudinal beam measurements to diagnose beam instabilities and verify the correctness of bunch-shaping techniques. To achieve this goal, a diagnostic system was developed to perform high-resolution measurements of longitudinal bunch profiles. High-performance oscilloscopes, synchronized to precise accelerator events, are employed to carry out the measurements, acquiring data from wideband wall-current monitors installed in the machine. This paper provides details on the implementation of the system, highlighting its current and future applications that will play a key role in increasing beam intensity in the LHC.

Bmad-Julia is a new, open-source software project for modern accelerator simulations with an emphasis on Machine Learning. As compared to existing accelerator codes, reverse differentiability, e.g. for the optimization of neural networks, will be embedded. Multiple standalone Julia packages are being developed that provide fundamental tools and methods commonly needed in accelerator simulations, it is envisaged that Bmad-Julia will be able to serve as the basis for developing new programs to meet the ever changing simulation requirements of high energy machines. By avoiding the necessity of "reinventing the wheel", programs that make use of Bmad-Julia packages can be developed in less time and with fewer bugs than programs developed from scratch. Included will be a package for accelerator lattice instantiation and bookkeeping, a package for handling physical and atomic constants, and a package for truncated Power Series Algebra (TPSA) with routines for manipulations and analysis including map inversion, partial map inversion, normal form decomposition, Poisson bracket, etc. Ultimately, all features of today’s versatile Bmad toolkit will be transferred, including polarized beams, radiation effects, beam scattering, symplectic tracking, and long-term dynamics. Discussed is the present state of the project as well as plans for the future.

The magnetic measurements laboratory of the Frascati National Laboratories of INFN is one of the pole of the Innovative Research Infrastructure for applied Superconductivity (IRIS). This infrastructure aims at upgrading laboratories to carry out basic research on magnetism and superconducting materials, test of superconducting magnets, wires, tapes, cables. The LNF pole will be devoted to testing SC coils and magnets at room temperature. These measurements are recommended during the manufacturing phase, since they allow the validation of the assembly and the detection of defects at early stages of production, before the cryogenic tests are carried out. Part of the equipment is already available, including a stretched wire bench, a rotating coil system, a NMR probe, gaussmeters, instruments for high precision electrical measurements. The IRIS upgrade will include a 3D Hall probe mole system, a pulsed wire bench, a 5-axes coordinatometer, high-stability power supplies of various sizes, a calibration system. The flexibility of the instruments will allow to cover a large range of magnetic measurements, from point maps to integrated fields, from multipolar analysis to fiducialization.

The automation upgrade of the photoinjector for the Compact X-Ray Light Source (CXLS) at Arizona State University is described. As the accelerator vault of the CXLS is only 10 meters long, the photoinjector drive laser is located in an enclosure inside the vault. Since ionizing radiation is present in this room during operations, it necessitates remote control of all devices used to optimize the laser spot. This includes multiple shutters, Galil motors, picomotors, a mirror flipper, LEDs, and remote lens controllers. To actuate these devices, a GUI was created with the use of MATLAB AppDesigner which communicates with the hardware through EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System). Challenges with this GUI are described, along with the team’s efforts to finalize the control software. After these upgrades, the photoinjector laser characteristics can be adjusted remotely during operation and changes to the drive laser’s position, shape, and intensity can be made without interrupting beam time.

MEDICYC (MEDical CYClotron) is an isochronous cyclotron dedicated to radiotherapy which was built and commissioned in Nice, France, in 1990 by a local team aided by experts from CERN. The cyclotron accelerates H- to a maximum energy of 65 MeV and uses stripping to extract a proton beam. Its primary purpose is treating ocular melanoma by protontherapy but a significant research activity is also present on beam-lines dedicated for this purpose. An extensive refurbishment program of the cyclotron has been started to cope with the end-of-life and/or the obsolescence of several sub-systems. In this context, a new high-level cyclotron control system has been developed and implemented in 2021-2023. The primary responsibility of the system is the high-level coordination of the H- source, the RF system and the beam-line and cyclotron magnets to produce and deliver a beam with a given set of characteristics. A secondary responsibility is the collection, visualization and analysis of sub-system and beam data for monitoring and pre-emptive fault detection. In this contribution, the control system software architecture is presented and the infrastructure on which the systems are deployed is laid out.

This paper presents a cost-effective asset management system (AMS) designed to optimize the workflow of the accelerator control system for the Advanced Light Source Upgrade (ALS-U) project at LBNL. The AMS stores all essential information about equipment, including location, owner, hardware details, and firmware versions. Its user-friendly interface provides consistent access throughout the equipment lifecycle, from quality assurance to installation, through label printing, QR codes, and the Web application. By streamlining workflows and improving data consistency, the AMS contributes significantly to the efficiency and success of the ALS-U project.

The LANSCE accelerator is an 800 MeV linear accelerator delivering beams for more than fifty years. As it has aged, maintenance and upgrades to its control system software components have become challenging and often deferred due to operational and schedule constraints. As a result, we have a wide variety of new and old software, difficult to re-use, with a large staff burden. Data is stored in redundant sources, inconsistent formats, and outdated technology. Multiple tools exist for the same tasks. Some production software is updated without proper processes. We describe our approach to modernizing LANSCE control system software with proper development processes. We consider reduction of diversity, redundancies, data sources. Migration to modern technologies is also discussed. We explore the possibility of language standardization, and describe our database implementation and other future plans. Lifecycle management is also considered. This years-long effort will utilize a risk-based strategy to address the most urgent issues while also ensuring steady progress, ultimately resulting in a coherent and maintainable suite of control system software.

Data acquisition (DAQ) is an ubiquitous feature in modern particle accelerator measurement and control systems. At the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), a next generation of electronic devices is being designed to meet the demands of upcoming renewal of facilities. The new developments utilize the CompactPCI Serial (CPCI-S.0) platform, and will cover a diverse set of applications, including Low Level Radio Frequency (LLRF), Longitudinal Beam Loss Monitoring (LBLM), and Filling Pattern Monitoring (FPM) systems. Careful design considerations and selection of an optimal architecture are crucial to fulfill a variety of DAQ requirements such as maximum frequency of acquisition, size of the data and different modes of triggering. In this contribution, we focus on the real-time DAQ implementations utilizing a multiprocessor system on chip (MPSoC) technology. We review the IP components developed in-house at PSI that provide the DAQ functionality. We demonstrate, that by reusing the IP components development, prototyping and testing of applications requiring the DAQ are accelerated.

During the Long Shutdown 2 (LS2 2019-2021) of the LHC, the orbit feedback correction software (OFB) of the LHC was redesigned to satisfy new requirements for LHC Run 3 (2022-2025) and to clean up legacy functionalities. The OFB is an essential component of LHC high intensity operation since the orbit must be stabilized to a fraction of the beam size during the entire LHC machine cycle. Redesigning such an essential and complex system during shutdowns requires thorough testing of the system functionality. The existing OFB testing system has been reviewed and improved based on the experience of LHC Run 2. An automatic, continuous integration tool has been put in place to validate future software developments before putting them in production. The solution for the OFB testing will be presented in this contribution.

The Full Remote Alignment System (FRAS) is an alignment system remotely controlled and monitored that comprises almost one thousand permanent sensors distributed along the 200 meters of equipment that will be installed in the frame of the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project on either side of the ATLAS and CMS detectors. The sensors, along with their electronics and a system of motorized actuators, will be used to adjust the relative positions of the components remotely, in real time, with no human intervention needed in the irradiated environment of the tunnel. In this contribution we describe the design and the implementation of the position estimation algorithm which is a core-component of the FRAS. This algorithm will process the data provided by all the sensors to determine exact positions and orientations of the associated components in real-time. The position estimation module is designed as a reusable C++ library and builds on the existing CERN LGC, a modular least-square software. It will be fully integrated into the FRAS software stack and is entirely file-less during operation. In this paper we will demonstrate its performance in a realistic case study and showcase its ability to provide position updates on a much higher frequency than the required 1 Hz.

A new Machine Protection System (MPS) and the Beam Position Limits Detector (BPLD) system are being developed for APS Upgrade (APS-U) accelerator storage ring. The MPS/BPLD system consists of one main MPS and 20 local MPS/BPLD controllers distributed around the ring, each local controller is located on every odd double sector. Each LMPS handles one double sector. Each double sector can be equipped up to seven Libera BPM electronics units. Each Libera unit processes up to four BPMs at Turn-by-Turn (TbT) rate. The Beam Position Limits Detector (BPLD) provides two types of protections: BPLD-ID and BPLD-BM for insertion device (ID) front-end (FE) and bending magnet (BM) incident radiation protection respectively. We select bumps using orbit feedback in a machine simulation to test the position limits of the system consistent with accelerator physics requirements for stable beam. This paper introduces the high level software implementation of APS-U BPLD-ID and BPLD-BM validation.

The Safe Machine Parameter (SMP) system is an electronic hardware-based system which has been an integral part of the LHC’s machine protection strategy since it started operation. Its primary objective is to provide several parameters and interlock signals to critical machine protection users across the LHC and SPS accelerators, whilst prioritizing high reliability and availability. After almost two decades of operation, there is a need to upgrade the SMP hardware electronics. In the High Luminosity LHC era the requirements of connected systems have changed, leading to new system functions and operational requirements which must be integrated into the new design. This paper details the electronic design considerations of developing the second-generation SMP. The general distribution of parameters relies on the CERN WhiteRabbit timing network renovation, for which dedicated high-precision clock components were selected and tested on a prototype board. Details of the hardware design and validation are discussed, along with the comprehensive upgrades aimed at delivering an SMP system with expanded monitoring and diagnostic features.

The FRIB carbon disc target receives the primary beam at high power and produces rare isotope fragments. To avoid damaging the carbon disc target, it is rotated at 500 RPM and cooled. If these thermal management mechanisms fail, local temperatures on the target can increase to the point of material sublimation and structural failure. A thermal imaging camera was temperature calibrated and installed for the purpose of monitoring the target temperature map in real time. Various image processing strategies were deployed to improve the accuracy and usefulness of the resulting image. Processing stages include conversion from intensity to temperature, median filtering to remove dead pixels, and flat field correction to compensate for vignetting and edge effects.

Beam emittance plays the crucial role in a Beam transportation system. At a fixed-target beamline off the AGS Booster Synchrotron, beam emittance is determined through measuring the beam width via a segmented multi-wire ion chamber (SWIC) and varying quadrupole strength. The width of the beam signal (as Full Width Half Max) on the SWIC passes through a minimum value and the resulting dataset of FWHM per magnet current is used to fit a function. Using this technique, new controls software has been developed to set up measurements, acquire data, and perform analysis through a python-based scripts to calculate the emittance along the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) beamline. Initial results of the program are presented to for various points along the beamline in a variety of conditions.

At the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) unique pre-separator wedges are required for each experiment. As the number of experiments and wedges needed increases every year, reduction in design time and increase in accuracy is critical (FY23 utilized 40 unique wedges, FY24 approx. 60 are planned, and eventually 100 annually). Design automation is achieved by DriveWorksXpress, which reduced design/drafting time by 60%. A form was created with parameters (inputs) listed for each component of the wedge assembly (e.g., wedge height, wedge on axis thickness, wedge angle, etc.). The dimensions and file properties of each component are then able to reference the input values for each parameter from the form and automatically adjust the model and assembly accordingly. Automation on drawing drafting is achieved at the same time. The reduction in design time resulted in completing the design task more efficiently. A reduction in design error and human error was also observed, reducing manufacturing down time and effort required during the release process. These benefits have streamlined the mechanical design process for the pre-separator wedges.

Radio Frequency Knock Out (RF-KO) resonant slow extraction is commissioned at the Cooler Synchrotron (COSY) Jülich for the first time to extract the stored beam and deliver spills with constant particle rates to the experiments. Therefore, transverse RF excitation generated with a software-defined radio is applied to control the extraction rate. A built-in feedback system adjusts the excitation amplitude to maintain the desired extraction rate. To suppress fluctuations of the particle rate on timescales of milliseconds and below, an optimization algorithm is used to tune the RF excitation signals. The method was used extensively during the final run of COSY in 2023, reliably delivering stable beams to various users.

An increasing number of accelerators are pursuing FLASH radiotherapy, which promises to mitigate unwanted damage to healthy tissues by applying ultra-high dose rates. To reach this extreme intensity regime, it is necessary to maximize the transmission through the exit nozzle, apart from increasing the accelerator’s output beam current. Simultaneously, the delivered beam properties must satisfy certain quality criteria that clinical applications require, such as transverse homogeneity. For this reason, a Python-based software has been developed to optimize the design of double-scattering beam nozzles. For a user-defined set of incoming beam parameters, output field requirements and available materials, the tool searches for the most efficient scattering conditions utilizing a graphical interface. These conditions are then translated into distances and shaping of the scatterers, involving a combination of high and low-density elements in a multiple-ring arrangement. A solution for the treatment of eye tumors has been successfully calculated, implemented, and tested with beam, in order to demonstrate the capabilities of this approach.

The APS Upgrade (APS-U) multi-bend acromat storage ring requires 1000 high-stability unipolar magnet power supplies. A precision current measurement and calibration system has been developed to independently measure the power supply output current to ensure the accuracy and repeatability of the supplies. The measurement system uses custom commercial DCCT current transducers along with APS-U-designed electronics. The calibration system is designed to perform on-demand calibration of all 1000 DC measurement channels simultaneously using a single current reference source instrument. The calibration system includes a precision current multiplier and impedance buffer based on a novel use of DCCT technology that provides a local precision calibration current for up to 6 DCCTs in series through multi-turn low impedance calibration windings. All system components have been received and passed acceptance testing; the full system is currently being installed in the new storage ring and full-scale evaluation will begin in early 2024. This paper describes the system design and presents preliminary test results.

This work is part of a larger program to study the effects of radiation on permanent magnets in an accelerator environment. In order to be sure that the permanent magnet samples are accurately placed, measured, and catalogued we have developed a system of sample racks, holders and measuring apparatuses. We have combined these holders and measurement racks with electronics to allow a single computer to catalogue the position and intensity of the magnet measurements. We outline the design of the apparatus, the collection software, and the methodology we will use to collect the data.