20 research outputs found
Intelligent Platform Management Controller for Low Level RF Control System ATCA Carrier Board
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GUI Application for ATCA-based LLRF Carrier Board Management
No full textThe Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) standard describes an efficient and powerful platform, implementation of which was adopted to be used as a base for control systems in high energy physics. The ATCA platform is considered to be applied for the X-ray Free Electron Laser (X-FEL), being built at Deutsches Electronen- Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany. The Low Level Radio Frequency (LLRF) control system is composed of a few ATCA Carrier Boards. Carrier Board hosts Intelligent Platform Management Controller (IPMC), which is developed in compliance with the PICMG specifications. IPMC is responsible for management and monitoring of sub-modules installed on Carrier Boards and pluggable Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) modules. The ATCA Shelf Manager is the main control unit of a single ATCA crate, responsible for all power and fan modules and Carrier Boards installed in ATCA shelf. The device provides a system administrator with a set of control and diagnostic capabilities regarding the crate and its sub-modules. These capabilities offered by Shelf Management are available for operators and can be further processed by higher layer applications. This paper presents a software component, the purpose of which is to support the management and supervision processes of the ATCA crate and its sub-modules, including ATCA Carrier Board devices with AMC modules. The application allows to acquire detailed information regarding status and parameters of crucial devices (e.g. power supply voltages, temperatures, presence of reference clocks). The combination of information supplied from Shelf Manager with graphical environment and user interface of the application provides visual representation of selected system components and contributes towards efficient control and supervision activities over Carrier Board and entire ATCA-based platform
Recent developments in control software for optical synchronization applications at DESY
No full textRapid FPGA Development Framework Using a Custom Simulink Library for MTCA.4 Modules
No full textThe recent introduction of advanced hardware architectures such as the Micro Telecommunications Computing Architecture (MTCA) caused a change in the approach to implementation of control schemes in many fields. It required the development to move away from traditional programming languages (C/C++) to hardware description languages Verilog), which are used in FPGA development.. With MATLAB/Simulink it is possible to describe complex systems with block diagrams and simulate their behavior. Those diagrams are then used by the HDL experts, to implement exactly the required functionality in hardware. Both the porting of existing applications and adaptation of new ones requires a lot of development time from them. To solve this, Xilinx SystemGenerator, a toolbox for MATLAB/Simulink, allows rapid prototyping of those block diagrams using hardware modelling. It is still up to the firmware developer to merge this structure with the hardware-dependent HDL project. This prevents the application engineer from quickly verifying the proposed schemes in real hardware.The framework described in this article overcomes these challenges, offering a hardware-independent library of components that can be used in Simulink/SystemGenerator models. The components are subsequently translated into VHDL entities and integrated with a pre-prepared VHDL project template. Furthermore, the entire implementation process is run in the background, giving the user a one-click path from control scheme modelling and simulation to bit-file generation.This approach allows the control theory engineers to quickly develop new schemes and test them in real hardware environment. The applications may range from simple data logging or signal generation ones to very advanced controllers. Taking advantage of the Simulink simulation capabilities and user-friendly hardware implementation routines, the framework significantly decreases the development time of FPGA-based applications
Recent Developments in Control Software for Optical Synchronization Applications at DESY
No full textProper operation of FELs such as the Free-Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH)and the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL), which is currently under construction in Hamburg at DESY, requires many specific subsystems to be synchronized with a precision exceeding 10 femtoseconds. Those components are often separated by several hundred meters at FLASH or even kilometers in case of the European XFEL. Such distances mean that it is extremely difficult to use only conventional RF signal distribution in coaxial cables for synchronization because of high losses and excessive phase drifts, while electromagnetic interference is also an issue. Therefore, a laser-based synchronization scheme can be employed in parallel. In this case, the synchronization signals are transmitted via length-stabilized optical fibers. Such an architecture is currently being used at FLASH and will also be the main means of synchronization at the European XFEL. The hardware for such a synchronization system consists of many optical elements such as commercial lasers and self-built free-space and fiber optic setups. However, a significant part of it is also the electronics responsible for control, diagnostics and signal processing as well as high-level servers and front-end software running on those devices. Currently, the VME standard is used throughout FLASH as the basis for the control system digital hardware. For the European XFEL, however, an architecture with a high level of reliability and availability is required as well as one with higher data acquisition and processing rates. Because of that, the Micro Telecommunications Computing Architecture (μTCA) had been chosen. It is a fairly new standard, provides significantly better performance and employs modern technological solutions making it more suitable for modern accelerator applications than the older VME architecture. The paper presents the latest improvements in the control software for the optical synchronization system based - n the VME standard. Servers for phase-locking the lasers as well as controlling the fiber link stabilization units are described in detail. Plans for migration to the new infrastructure are also outline
Rapid-X - An FPGA Development Toolset Using a Custom Simulink Library for MTCA.4 Modules
No full textThe recent introduction of advanced hardware architectures such as the Micro Telecommunications Computing Architecture (MTCA) caused a change in the approach to implementation of control schemes in many fields. The development has been moving away from traditional programming languages ( C/C++), to hardware description languages (VHDL, Verilog), which are used in FPGA development. With MATLAB/Simulink it is possible to describe complex systems with block diagrams and simulate their behavior. Those diagrams are then used by the HDL experts to implement exactly the required functionality in hardware. Both the porting of existing applications and adaptation of new ones require a lot of development time from them. To solve this, Xilinx System Generator, a toolbox for MATLAB/Simulink, allows rapid prototyping of those block diagrams using hardware modelling. It is still up to the firmware developer to merge this structure with the hardware-dependent HDL project. This prevents the application engineer from quickly verifying the proposed schemes in real hardware. The framework described in this article overcomes these challenges, offering a hardware-independent library of components that can be used in Simulink/System Generator models. The components are subsequently translated into VHDL entities and integrated with a pre-prepared VHDL project template. Furthermore, the entire implementation process is run in the background, giving the user an almost one-click path from control scheme modelling and simulation to bit-file generation. This approach allows the application engineers to quickly develop new schemes and test them in real hardware environment. The applications may range from simple data logging or signal generation ones to very advanced controllers. Taking advantage of the Simulink simulation capabilities and user-friendly hardware implementation routines, the framework significantly decreases the development time of FPGA-based applications
High Voltage RTM Piezo Driver for XFEL Special Diagnostics
No full textHigh voltage RTM Piezo Driver has been developed to support special diagnostic applications foreseen for XFEL facility. The RTM is capable of driving 4 piezo actuators with voltages up to ±80 V. The solid-state power amplifiers are driven using 18-bit DACs and sampling rates of 1 MSPS. The bandwidth of the driver is remotely tunable using programmable low pass filters. The 4-channel Piezo Driver unit provides the information of piezo output voltage and current. Three independent test setups have been built to test 4-channel Piezo Driver performance. In the paper we are presenting EOD laser lock to 1.3 GHz FLASH master oscillator using bipolar piezo stretcher (fine tuning). The piezo motor based course tuning has been applied for the long term laser stability measurements. The unipolar piezo actuator operation has been demonstrated for the Origami Onefive laser locked to 1.3 GHz LAB MO. The preliminary results of active stabilization of 3 km fiber link laboratory setup are shown
MTCA.4 Module for Cavity and Laser Piezo Operation
No full textA MicroTCA.4 (MTCA.4) compliant Piezo Driver (DRTM-PZT4)* has been developed to drive piezoelectric-based actuators used in accelerator instrumentation applications. More specifically, it is used for superconducting cavities fine tuning, synchronization of pulsed lasers and stabilization of fiber links. This paper briefly presents the designed system requirements and discusses the main hardware issues. The Piezo Driver performance measurements are also discussed. The first results of the prototype hardware usage for laser locking** to an external RF source and fiber link stabilization are summarized
Laser-to-RF Synchronization with Femtosecond Precision
No full textOptical synchronization systems are already in regular operation in many FELs, or they will eventually be implemented in the future. In FLASH and the European XFEL, phase-stableoptical reference signals are provided by a pulsed optical synchronization system in order to achieve low timing jitter FEL performance. The generation of phase-stable RF signalsfrom a pulsed optical synchronization system is still a field of active research. The optical reference module (REFM-OPT), designed at DESY for operation in both FELs, employs a laser-to-RF phase detector, based on an integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The phase drift of the 1.3 GHz RF reference signals with respect to the optical pulses is measured and actively corrected within the REFM-OPT at multiple locations in the accelerator. Therefore the REFM-OPT provides phase stable 1.3 GHz RF reference signals at these locations.The short-term and long-term performance in the accelerator tunnel of the European XFEL is presented and carefully reviewed
