Embedded Control System


Embedded Control System for High Power RF Amplifiers

FREE-DOWNLOADRF Power Devices are usually very sensitive to overheat and reflected RF power; hence a protective interlock system is required to be embedded with high power solid state RF amplifiers. The solid state RF amplifiers have salient features of graceful degradation and very low mean time to repair (MTTR). In order to exploit these features in favour of lowest system downtime, a real-time control system is embedded with high power RF amplifiers. The control system is developed with the features of monitoring, measurement and network publishing of various parameters, historical data logging, alarm generation, displaying data to the operator and tripping the system in case of any interlock failure. This paper discusses the design philosophy, features, functions and implementation details of the embedded control system.

Due to the advancement in high frequency high power semiconductor device technology, RF transistors of power range of 1 kW are now available. The inherent advantages of solid state technology and the device availability are thrusting the development of high power solid state RF amplifiers for use in particle accelerators. We are developing high power solid state RF amplifiers working at various powers and frequencies to fulfil various needs of the centre. Each amplifier rack consists of a number of RF power amplifier modules, driver amplifier chain, DC bias power supplies, high power RF combiners and splitters, cooling system, mains powering system along with various monitoring, measurement and interlock components (Figure 1). Thus, to manage and diagnose such a complex system, an embedded monitoring and control system is required. Hence, all of the amplifiers racks have been embedded with a real time control system.