• M. Konrad, U. Bonnes, C. Burandt, R. Eichhorn, N. Pietralla
  TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt

The superconducting cavities of the S-DALINAC have a high loaded quality factor and are very susceptible to microphonics. To stabilize the amplitude and phase of the cavities' fields an analog control system has been used for 20 years. To improve the stability and the availability of the low level RF control system it is currently replaced by a digital one. The 3 GHz signals coming from the cavities are converted down to the base band using hardware I/Q demodulators. The base band signals are digitized by ADCs and fed into an FPGA. This FPGA contains a custom CPU which executes the code implementing the control algorithm. The computed control signal is I/Q modulated before it is send to the cavity again. The superconducting cavities are operated with a self-excited loop algorithm whereas a generator driven algorithm is used for the low Q normal conducting bunching cavities. A 6 GHz RF board allows the operation of a new 2f buncher. Parameters can be adjusted via an EPICS IOC running on a standard PC. All signals from the FPGA can be monitored in realtime by the operator.