Beam Position Monitor System for Storage Rings

Beam position monitors (BPM) for synchrotron light storage rings usually consist of beam pickup electrodes, coaxial relays and a narrowband receiver. While accurate, these systems are slow and of limited use in the commissioning of an accelerator. A beam position monitor is described which is intended to be a principal diagnostic during debug and routine running of a storage ring. It is capable of measuring the position of a single bunch on the first or nth orbit to an accuracy of a few percent. Stored beam position is more accurately measured with averaging techniques. Beam position changes can be studied in a bandwidth from DC to a few MHz. The beam monitor electronics consist of a separate amplification, detection, and sampling channel for each beam pickup electrode. Fast switches in each channel permit selection of the nth turn for measurement (single bunch mode). A calibration pulse is injected into each channel after beam measurement to permit gain offsets to be measured and removed from the final data. While initially more costly than the usual beam position monitor system, this system will pay for itself in reduced storage ring debug and trouble shooting time.