Progress on the ISIS synchrotron digital low level RF system upgrade

TL;DR

This paper discusses the upgrade of the ISIS synchrotron's digital low level RF system, replacing aging analogue controls with FPGA-based solutions to improve stability and reliability in beam acceleration.

Contribution

The paper presents the implementation and testing of a new FPGA-based LLRF control system using off-the-shelf hardware for the ISIS synchrotron.

Findings

Successful commissioning of the FlexRIO system.

Stable operation of cavity control loops over three years.

Plans for gradual system replacement.

Abstract

The ISIS synchrotron at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK now routinely uses a dual harmonic RF system to accelerate beam currents in excess of 230uA to run two target stations simultaneously. The acceleration in the ISIS synchrotron is provided by six fundamental frequency (1RF) and four second harmonic (2RF) RF cavities. The 1RF systems are required to sweep from 1.3MHz to 3.1MHz during the 10ms acceleration period, repeated at 50Hz, with the 2RF systems sweeping from 2.6MHz to 6.3MHz. The existing analogue LLRF control system has been in service for over 30 years and is now showing some signs of old age and spare parts are becoming difficult to source. In order to overcome this and to give more stable control of the phase of the RF voltage at each of the cavities, changes have been made to the LLRF control system. A new FPGA based combined frequency law generator . master oscillator has been implemented using 'off the shelf' National Instruments PXI-express based FlexRIO modules. This initial design has been successfully used during the ISIS operational cycles for over three years. This paper reports on the commissioning of the FlexRIO system, the implementation and recent testing of the cavity control loops and plans for the gradual replacement of remaining parts of the LLRF system.