SBIR/STTR Award attributes
NSL recognizes the need within the accelerator community for robust and accurate beam halo monitoring detectors. Non-idealities in the accelerating equipment, uncertainties in current machine controls, and random noise driven fluctuations all combine to diminish the quality and focus of accelerated charged particle beams which results in degradation of the resulting physics, losses which decrease the beam luminosity, and unintended damage to equipment. Additionally, many modern experiments require precise characterization and measurement of the incident beam in both the temporal and spatial domains in order to correctly analyze the resulting data produced at end station detectors. NSL is proposing the design, implementation, and testing of a fully integrated and commercially ready system for a Time Resolved Beam Halo Monitor (TR-BHM) which will utilize diamond cross-strip detectors integrated with full waveform digitizers to non-destructively measure the spatial and temporal profile of a beam halo. NSL, through previous SBIR efforts, has developed radiation hard, multiple gigasample per second, sample-and-hold digitizers which include digital control integration and digital signal processing with low power draw and low cost per channel. Integration of the two technologies into a single vacuum enclosed detector package will allow for high occupancy beam halo sampling, with readout rates in the hundreds of kilohertz, timing resolution of traversing halo particles in the range of single-digit picoseconds, and a single point spatial resolution of 500-1000um with several sampling positions. The TR-BHM would additionally be able to contribute directly to beam machine control operations in near real time with minimal to no human oversight, as well as provide additional diagnostics on a bunch-by-bunch basis of beam uniformity and stability. Design and development of a single detector beam halo monitor that can be deployed in an electron accelerator facility. This includes design, acquisition and assembly of several vacuum tolerant boards, the mechanical housings, linear actuators, the required feed connectors and custom firmware and software. Testing of the completed segment will be undertaken using both commercially available electron beam facilities, in addition to DOE user facilities. This device can be used by accelerator beam scientists, diagnostics technicians, and operators in order to improve beam focusing and decrease losses from incorrect tuning by capturing beam halo characteristics at high sampling rates and with high precision.
