Design and Evaluation of a Digital Control System: An Upgrade from Converters to Resolve Aging and Obsolescence Issues

The dc-dc converters at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at the Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois, are more than 15 years old. An upgrade to a digital control system is being evaluated to resolve aging and obsolescence issues. These converters supply power to electromagnets used to guide high-energy beams, so a highly accurate control system is required for the dc-dc converters. This article describes the design and evaluation of a digital control system to regulate the output current and resolve aging and obsolescence issues.

Overview of Control Systems

Particle accelerators have found many applications in different fields, including medical therapy, material analysis, noninvasive security assessment, radionuclide production, and high-energy and nuclear physics [1]. Precise control of the particle beam is important in all of these applications, but the use of photon beams in high-energy physics is of particular concern.