The Features of the Pulsed Power Technology Control Systems
A.V.Kartashov, N.I.Lachtjushko, V.I.Zaitsev
Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Fusion Research, Troitsk, 142092, Russia− simulation experiments.
Abstract
The pulsed power technology is being used forgeneration of intense x-ray and charged particle beams(electron, light ions), inertial confinement fusion researches, high current z-pinch experiments. The main part of thepulsed power facility is the generator with parameters:
power >1013 Wt, current >106 A, output pulse timeduration ≈10-7 sec. The operation of pulsed power
facilities have specific features, namely, a small number
experiments (shot) per day, short time duration ofprocesses in generator (<10-6 sec), hundreds of measuring
parameters during shot.
According to specific operation, the control equipment offacility contain several types of systems. One of them isthe system for the technological preparation of theinstallation for a shot. Because technological parameters
are changed slowly it is possible to realize on-line
operation of this system. Second one is the dataacquisition system for acquiring data during a shot. Thissystem includes fast ADC of different types. Part of them
have the time step of waveform measurements <10-9 sec.
The special timing system provides the synchronization ofall systems operation in the wide time scale of events. In
this paper control systems of pulsed power Angara-5
facility as an example is given.
1 Introduction
Pulse power technologinal systems are experimental
facilities that produce electric power ≥1012 Watt during
time 10-8-10-7 sec. Designs of pulse power facilities (PPF)
are very different, but the operation algorithm of one isvery similar. There is the condenser of electric power.
Usually it is a capacitor battery. After change, thecondenser switches to power compressing device. Often aspower compressing device the coaxial lines are used. Aselectric insulator of coaxial lines the distiller water is usedvery broadly. There are designs of PPF where the fastcurrent switches from inductance to load are applied.
Now the PBFA facility [1] of Sandia National
Laboratory is the most powerful facility of this type. One
has 1014 Watt electric power. The Angara-5 facility [2] ofTroitsk Institute Innovation and Fusion Research can
produce the pulses of electric current on the load up 5*106
Ampere.
The main application areas of PPF are the following:− generation of intense light ion and electron beams;− inertial confined controlled thermonuclear fusion;− fast z-pinch experiment;

2 Operation features of PPF
Usually PPF are operated in the single cycles (shots)mode (several shots per day). It is possible to separate
working cycle in the following technological steps:− preparation of facility for the working cycle;− change capacitor battery during several minutes;− switch condenser to the power compressing device
during several mks;
− switch power compressing device to the load during
several tens ns.
It is possible to realize feedback operation of control on
the first and second steps only. On the later steps thefunctions of control are synchronization of all facility partsand date acquisition performance.
3 Typical control equipment of PPF
According to algorithm PPF operation, it is possible thatthe control systems divides on three main parts (Fig.1).
SUPERVISOR
networktechnologicalsystems

timingsystems

fast dataacquisition
systems

pulse power facilityFig. 1. Control sytems structure of the pulse power facility
The first one is technological system. This provides thefacility preparation of working cycle, control of capacity
charge and date acquisition of slowly changing parameters.
At the Angara-5 facility this system provides gas pressuresin switches (128 directions) and the charge of condenser
batteries (16 directions). As hardware interface theCAMAC equipment is used.
The data acquisition system contains the analog todigital converters (ADC) of different kinds ofmeasurement for fast signals from detector and sensors offacility. At the Angara-5 facility there are several
subsystem with fast ADC. Each subsystem contains thedefinite ADC type. There are subsystems for waveform
measurements, peak signal amplitudes and time start ofsignals. About 200 signals are measured during each shot.
For waveform measurements with frequency ADC

operation more than 1 GHz, the TEKTRONIX hardware isused.
The timing system provides synchronization of facility
equipment and measuring channels operation in the timescale that is ″attached″ to facility working cycle. AtAngara-5 the time scale is determined by 100 MHz
generator. The special timing blocks pass the definate
pulse to the output. The accuracy of output pulse
attachment to facility processes is 2.5 nsec.
Supervisor produces control all systems and provide
processing, display and archiving information about
facility operation.
All equipment is controlled by computers of IBM PC
type on the subsystems levels. The local network
ETHERNET is used.
4 Software structure
Usually PPF are used for different experimental
programs. The program change connects with somereconstruction of hardware environment. By this, the types
and number of measuring channels can change. The
measuring channel includes sensors (detector),transmitting cable and ADC. Software must havestructures that allow to adapt one according to newexperimental environment during short time.
According to this requirement the special method ofsoftware design was applied for measuring systems ofAngara-5 [3]. The method includes the description of thesystem composition by means of a computer aided design
tool. This description is saved in the special date base andused by the system software for automatic initialization of
the real hardware. Any change of the connection scheme ordevice types does not require a new design of the system
software. It is necessary to edit the scheme inside the datebase only. This method requires object-oriented
programm-ing techniques and the hierarchical structure of
the systems. At the same time the full documentation
about the system structure is produced. The application ofthis method to systems with changeable configuration
reduce the time of modification of one and prolong life
time of software.
On the supervisor level, a special tool for descrip-tion of
all experimental environment (DSR) is used [4]. The DSR
program has the following funtionality:− enter and edit the parameters of the system components;− create the description file (experiment scheme) of acertain experiment′s measurement environment;− output the experiment scheme as a doccument.
Usually the diagnostics methods of the installaton events
researches are required to use the information about themeasuring channels set and some algorithms of dataprocessing. The experiment description on the diagnotics
methods level is the DSR next step.
References[1] Quitenz, J.P. et al., Proc. of BEAMS′96, v.1, p.1-6,
Prague, Czech Republic, June 10-14, 1996,[2] Z.A.Albicov et al., Sov. Atomic Energy, v.68, part1,p.6-35, 1990.
[3] V.I.Zaitsev, Yu.V.Papazyan, V.N.Savochkin, Nuclear
Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Vol.
A347, Proc. of ICALEPCS′93, p.418-420, Berlin,
Germay, October 18-23, 1993.
[4] V.I.Zaitsev et al., Proc. of ICALEPCS′95, v.2, p. 977979, Chicago, USA, October 30-November 3, 1995.