학술논문

High-Level Software Interface to the LLRF System Developed for the European Spallation Source Facility
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on. 68(8):2132-2139 Aug, 2021
Subject
Nuclear Engineering
Bioengineering
Software tools
Control systems
Monitoring
Temperature sensors
Linear accelerators
Accelerator control systems
detuning compensation
experimental physics and industrial control system (EPICS)
linear accelerator
LO distribution
low-level radio frequency (RF) control
Language
ISSN
0018-9499
1558-1578
Abstract
The European Spallation Source (ESS) accelerator is composed of superconducting elliptical cavities. When the facility is running, the cavities are fed with an electric field from klystrons. Parameters of this field are monitored and controlled by the low-level radio frequency (LLRF) system. Its main goal is to keep the amplitude and phase at a given set point. The LLRF system is also responsible for the reference clock distribution. During operation, the cavities are periodically experiencing strain caused by the Lorentz force, while the high gradient of the electric field is generated for the beam acceleration. Even small changes in the physical dimensions of a cavity shift its resonance frequency. This phenomenon, called detuning, causes significant power losses. It is actively compensated by the LLRF control system, which can physically tune lengths of the accelerating cavities with stepper motors (slow, coarse-grained control) and piezo elements (active compensation during operation). This article describes the implementation and tests of the software supporting various aspects of the LLRF system and cavities management. The Piezo Driver management and monitoring tool is dedicated to a piezo controller device. The LO distribution application is responsible for configuration of the local oscillator. The cavity simulator tool was designed to provide access to properties of the hardware device, emulating behavior of the elliptical cavities. IPMI Manager Software was implemented to monitor the state of MicroTCA.4 crates, which are a major part of the LLRF system architecture. All applications have been created using the experimental physics and industrial control system (EPICS) framework and built in the ESS EPICS Environment (E3).