Control System for the ORNL Multicharged Ion Research Facility High-Voltage Platform

A control system for the 250-kV platform and beamlines for accelerating and transporting ions produced by an all-permanent-magnet ECR ion source has been developed at the ORNL Multicharged Ion Research Facility. This system utilizes the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) software to manipulate a programmable logic controller (PLC) and its associated I/O points. Additional control points are accessed by the EPICS Input/Output Controller (IOC) via RS-232 and GPIB interfaces. The Allen Bradley ControlLogix chassis located at each of the electrical potentials of the installation, that is at the source, platform, and ground potentials, are inter connected via Ethernet utilizing fiber optic transmission to bridge the different high voltage environments. The user interface for the EPICS IOC is built with the Extensible Display Manager (EDM) software. Performance of the control system during initial experiments using the high-voltage platform will be reported.