High-Performance Digitizers in Beam Position Monitoring

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High-performance digitizers are integral to Beam Position Monitoring (BPM) systems, which are essential for the precise control and optimization of particle beams in accelerators and synchrotrons. These digitizers convert analog signals from beam position monitors into digital data, enabling accurate and real-time analysis of beam dynamics.

Key Benefits and Applications

Enhanced Measurement Precision

High-performance digitizers offer exceptional resolution and sampling rates, allowing for precise measurement of beam position and stability. This precision is vital for maintaining the quality and consistency of particle beams in experiments and industrial applications. For instance, at the High Energy Photon Source (HEPS), the beam orbit must be stabilized to the sub-micrometer level to achieve high orbital stability.

Real-Time Data Processing

With advanced processing capabilities, these digitizers can handle large volumes of data in real-time. This enables immediate feedback and adjustments to the beam, ensuring optimal performance and reducing downtime. The ability to process data in real-time is crucial for applications such as particle collision experiments at facilities like CERN, where extreme precision in spatial and temporal control is required.

Improved Beam Quality

By providing accurate and timely data, high-performance digitizers help in fine-tuning the beam parameters. This leads to improved beam quality, which is essential for high-energy physics experiments, medical applications, and materials science research. Our digitizers' high measurement throughput and excellent measurement fidelity enhance beam quality in advanced applications.

Compact and Cost-Effective Solutions

Modern digitizers are designed to be compact and cost-effective, making them suitable for integration into various BPM systems without significant space or budget constraints. This compactness is particularly beneficial in large-scale research facilities where space is at a premium.

Versatility in Applications

These digitizers are used in a wide range of applications, from large-scale research facilities like CERN to industrial settings where precise beam control is required. They are also employed in medical accelerators for cancer treatment and in the development of new materials through synchrotron radiation. The versatility of high-performance digitizers makes them indispensable in various fields of research and industry.

Technical Details

Sampling Rate and Resolution

High-performance digitizers typically offer sampling rates in the gigasamples per second (GSPS) range, and vertical resolution up to 16 bits. This high resolution allows for the detection of minute changes in beam position, which is critical for maintaining beam stability and quality. At Teledyne SP Devices we offer digitizers at up to 14-bits resolution, but with Pulse Dynamic Range eXtension (PDRX) we achieve a dynamic range compared to 16 bits, with 5 GSPS sampling rate.

Signal Processing Capabilities

Advanced signal processing capabilities, such as digital filtering and fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis, enable the extraction of meaningful data from the raw signals. These capabilities are essential for identifying and correcting beam instabilities and other issues in real-time.

Synchronization and Timing

Accurate synchronization and timing are crucial to BPM systems. High-performance digitizers often include features such as multi-channel synchronization and precise timing references to ensure that all measurements are accurately correlated. This is particularly important in large accelerator facilities, where multiple BPMs are used to monitor the beam along its entire path.

Data Acquisition and Storage

High-performance digitizers are equipped with large onboard memory and fast data transfer interfaces, such as PCIe and Ethernet, to handle the high data rates generated by BPM systems. This ensures that all relevant data is captured and stored for further analysis.

Environmental Considerations

Digitizers used in BPM systems must be robust and reliable, capable of operating in the challenging environments of particle accelerators. This includes resistance to radiation and electromagnetic interference, as well as the ability to function at low temperatures.

Teledyne SP Devices' Digitizers

Teledyne SP Devices offers high-performance digitizers such as the ADQ36-PXIe, which are optimized for use in high channel-count scientific applications, including BPM systems. The ADQ36-PXIe features:

Up to 5 GSPS sampling rate per channel and 12-bit resolution, providing high precision in beam position measurements.
Open FPGA for real-time processing and peer-to-peer streaming to GPU at 3.2 GBytes/s, enabling efficient data handling and analysis.
Software-selectable two- or four-channel configuration, making it adaptable to various BPM system requirements.
PXIe form factor, which is compact and suitable for integration into existing systems without significant space constraints.

Conclusion

High-performance digitizers, including those from Teledyne SP Devices, are indispensable in the field of Beam Position Monitoring. They provide the accuracy, speed, and reliability needed to advance research and industrial applications. Their ability to deliver real-time data and enhance beam quality makes them a critical component in the ongoing development of particle accelerator technology.

Teledyne SP Devices offer both stand-alone firmware packages as well as firmware development kits:

FWATD is an optional stand-alone firmware package that provide extreme dynamic range through noise reduction. It provides four methods for noise reduction; DBS for stable trigger reference (baseline) level, low-pass filter for noise suppression, threshold for detection of rare events, and real-time waveform averaging of repetitive signals for power enhancement. This firmware is commonly used in mass spectrometry and have in some instances helped reduce the output rate from 20 Gbyte/s to 40 Mbyte/s - a reduction of 500 times without loss of signal properties/characteristics!
FWPD provides pulse detection capabilities including tools for detecting sparse, non-repetitive pulses. It outputs either pulse metadata, raw pulse data captured within a detection window, or both. It also discards unwanted data in order to reduce the overall data rate. In mass spectrometry this firmware is used for determining peak location, pulse width, etc.
The ADQ Development Kit is a tool for developing custom digitizer firmware. In mass spectrometry it can for example be used to implement real-time curve fitting to distinguish pulses that overlap.

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Hardware options	Resolution [bits]	Channel Count	Sampling rate [GSPS]	Waveform Averaging	FPGA	Interface
ADQ14	14	4 2 1	1 2 2	Optional	Xilinx K325T	PCIe , PXIe, USB3.0, MTCA.4, 10 GbE
ADQ36	12	4 2	2.5 5	Optional	Xilinx KU115	PXIe

Firmware options	Comment
FWATD	Optional waveform averaging firmware.
FWPD	Optional pulse detection firmware.
DEVDAQ	Optional FPGA development kit based on FWDAQ.

Key Bene​​fits an​​d Applications