3 GHz digital rf control at the superconducting Darmstadt electron linear accelerator: First results from the baseband approach and extensions for other frequencies

Abstract

The low level rf system for the superconducting Darmstadt electron linear accelerator (S-DALINAC) developed 20 years ago and operating since converts the 3 GHz signals from the cavities down to the baseband and not to an intermediate frequency. While designing the new, digital rf control system this concept was kept: the rf module does the $I/Q$ and amplitude modulation/demodulation while the low frequency board, housing an field programmable gate array analyzes and processes the signals. Recently, the flexibility of this concept was realized: By replacing the modulator/demodulators on the rf module, cavities operating at frequencies other than the one of the S-DALINAC can be controlled with only minor modifications: A 6 GHz version, needed for a harmonic bunching system at the S-DALINAC and a 324 MHz solution to be used on a room temperature cavity at GSI, are currently under design. This paper reviews the concept of the digital low level rf control loops in detail and reports on the results gained during first operation with a superconducting cavity.