Design of a controller for the SHINE injector

An advanced and large research facility - Shanghai High repetition rate X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) and Extreme Light (SHINE) - has been under construction at Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (SARI), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Among all the instruments, the injector is one of the main components, which enables the electron bunches to be extracted from a solid cathode by a laser beam, focused and accelerated by an electron radio frequency (RF) gun, and directed towards the linear accelerators (linac) with an exit energy of 8 GeV. A programmable logic control (PLC) controller based on the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is built to acquire the status, enable the power, and cope with the interlock and alarms of the kicker power supply. The control scheme and modular configurations are given. The compact design allows autonomous, reliable and robust operation when the kicker is applied in a harsh environment.