State of the Art in Rf Control

Nowadays the designer of a new rf control system has access to a wealth of powerful digital, analog, and rf circuitry. The requirements for the rf control system have changed from only controlling the amplitude and phase of the accelerating field to the required degree to stability. Additional tasks include exception handling and extensive build-in diagnostics while pursuing issues related to reliability, operability, and maintainability. Also operation close to the performance limit must be supported while maximizing the availability of the accelerator. With many accelerator projects in planning or under construction several state-of-the art rf control designs have evolved. This paper will present an overview of this new technology and discuss its performance. Contribution to the conference LINAC 04, Lübeck, Germany Work supported by the European Community-Research Infrastructure Activity under the FP6 “Structuring the European Research Area” programme (CARE, contract number RII3-CT2003-506395).