New field programmable gate array-based image-oriented acquisition and real-time processing applied to plasma facing component thermal monitoring

During operation of present fusion devices, the plasma facing components (PFCs) are exposed to high heat fluxes. Understanding and preventing overheating of these components during long pulse discharges is a crucial safety issue for future devices like ITER. Infrared digital cameras interfaced with complex optical systems have become a routine diagnostic to measure surface temperatures in many magnetic fusion devices. Due to the complexity of the observed scenes and the large amount of data produced, the use of high computational performance hardware for real-time image processing is then mandatory to avoid PFC damages. At Tore Supra, we have recently made a major upgrade of our real-time infrared image acquisition and processing board by the use of a new field programmable gate array (FPGA) optimized for image processing. This paper describes the new possibilities offered by this board in terms of image calibration and image interpretation (abnormal thermal events detection) compared to the previous system.