ICALEPCS 2025 - The 20th International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems

Development of an EPICS-based control platform for electron beam commissioning at ELI-NP

WEPD005

24 Sept 2025, 16:30

1h 30m

Palmer House Hilton Chicago

Poster Presentation MC01: Project Status Report on New Facilities WEPD Posters

Speaker

Mr Aurelian Ionescu (Horia Hulubei National Institute for R and D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering)

Description

The ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics) gamma beam system employs a 234-742 MeV linear accelerator to generate gamma rays via laser-electron interactions. Accelerator operation requires coordinated control of multiple subsystems (RF, vacuum, magnets, diagnostics). During pre-commissioning, we developed an EPICS-based platform to enable equipment debugging and beam tuning simulations before control system completion.
The platform integrates both soft IOCs (for device emulation and algorithm validation) and device IOCs (for hardware control). This dual-IOC architecture allows: 1) High-level control software testing without physical hardware, and 2) Physics application interfaces for advanced functionality. The system successfully simulated control operations and supported tuning algorithm development.
Testing demonstrated the platform's effectiveness for subsystem debugging and realistic beam tuning simulations. By bridging the gap between hardware availability and control system readiness, the platform is expected to accelerate the commissioning process and enhance the operational efficiency of the ELI-NP gamma beam system in the future.

Funding Agency

This work is carried out under the contract PN 23 21 01 06 sponsored by the Romanian Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization.