NSLS-II Inject Linac RF Control Electronics Upgrade

The electron LINAC injector of NSLS-II synchrotron light-source runs both Single-Bunch beam and long Multi-Bunch beam of up to 150 bunches. The key component for achieving this dual injector beam mode support capability is a high-speed rf modulator (or RFM) in the LINAC RF electronics front-end, which performs the necessary rf control and the beam loading compensation of different injection beams. The original LINAC rf electronics front-end successfully supported the machine commissioning and meets the basic needs of the machine operation. The upgrade being pursued is focused on improving the RFM control performance through replacing the current analog implementation in the RFM with a much more capable digital implementation, while still maintaining the necessary control bandwidth that is required for long and short Multi-Bunch beams. A variety of modern COTS rf transmission/reception DSP technology will be incorporated in the new design. The improvement in the reliability of network connection between the RFM’s and their host server is another focus in the upgrade, and the solution includes the adoption of the COTS TCP/IP and other communication protocol offload engines.