Electronic System for Total Current and Beam Profile Measurement in a Tandem Accelerator

We present a current measurement circuit designed for installation into the control unit of the tandem accelerator in the Reactor Materials Testing Laboratory (RMTL) at Queen’s University, Canada. The design enables monitoring of the beam properties during nuclear materials irradiation experiments. The circuit can simultaneously: i) monitor the total beam current from an edge detector system during operation of an accelerator beamline, and ii) verify the beam profile from a beam profiler utilising 40 Faraday cups. The implementation uses a charge integration technique during an irradiation experiment to avoid current measurement inaccuracy due to fluctuations in the beam current.