The upgraded data acquisition system for beam loss monitoring at the Fermilab Tevatron and Main Injector

TL;DR

The paper presents a new VME-based data acquisition system for beam-loss monitors at Fermilab's Tevatron and Main Injector, enhancing beam-loss protection and enabling detailed post-abort analysis during collider operations.

Contribution

It introduces a new, integrated data acquisition system that improves beam-loss monitoring and protection during collider operations at Fermilab.

Findings

System successfully implemented in 2006-2008

Enhanced protection with real-time abort logic

Records detailed beam-loss history for analysis

Abstract

A VME-based data acquisition system for beam-loss monitors has been developed and is in use in the Tevatron and Main Injector accelerators at the Fermilab complex. The need for enhanced beam-loss protection when the Tevatron is operating in collider-mode was the main driving force for the new design. Prior to the implementation of the present system, the beam-loss monitor system was disabled during collider operation and protection of the Tevatron magnets relied on the quench protection system. The new Beam-Loss Monitor system allows appropriate abort logic and thresholds to be set over the full set of collider operating conditions. The system also records a history of beam-loss data prior to a beam-abort event for post-abort analysis. Installation of the Main Injector system occurred in the fall of 2006 and the Tevatron system in the summer of 2007. Both systems were fully operation by the summer of 2008. In this paper we report on the overall system design, provide a description of its normal operation, and show a number of examples of its use in both the Main Injector and Tevatron.