A system control and waveform acquisition framework for kicker at SHINE

A lumped kicker magnet system is being developed as part of the electron beam switchyard of Shanghai High repetition rate X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) and Extreme Light (SHINE) at Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (SARI), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). SHINE is a linac-based facility with an energy of 8 GeV and a repletion rate of 1 MHz, aiming for a multi-beamline mode of operation to improve the efficiency of the user experiments. The kicker is located in a tunnel and appears to be a critical element of the defection system and determines the stability performance of the beamlines. To allow autonomous and reliable operation in a harsh environment, a dedicated control system based on the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is developed. In this work, status acquisition, control scheme, and alarm handlers are programmed via a programmable logic control (PLC) based human machine interface (HMI). A compact and modular design of the controller, including four slots (trigger, timing, external, and power supply interlock) and HMI are integrated to allow easy maintenance and operation. In addition, a waveform acquisition framework based on LabVIEW is built to ensure the intuitive demonstration of the kicker waveforms. This enables the waveform real-time diagnosis and fast-tracking if any distortions occur in the beamlines. Detailed design – overall concept, achieved performance, and initial tested results - of two modular configurations of the controllers are provided for further demonstration.