SwissFEL C-BAND LLRF PROTOTYPE SYSTEM

The SwissFEL is driven by more than 30 RF stations at different frequencies (S-, C-, X-band). To control the RF a new, in-house developed digital Low Level RF (LLRF) system measures up to 24 RF signals per station and performs a pulse-to-pulse feedback at a repetition rate of 100 Hz. The RF signals are down-converted to a common intermediate frequency. The state-of-the-art digital processing units are integrated into the PSI’s EPICS controls environment. Emphasis has been put on modularity of the system to provide a well-defined path for upgrades. Thus the RF front-ends are separated from the digital processing units with their FMC standard interfaces for ADCs and DACs. A first prototype of the LLRF system consisting of the digital back-end together with a C-band RF front-end was installed in the SwissFEL C-band test facility. In this report the performance of the prototype system has been compared with the LLRF system requirements for SwissFEL. The critical parameters are high intra-pulse phase and amplitude resolutions, good channel-to-channel isolations, very low phase-to-amplitude modulation and a negligible temperature drift.