Measurement of the Beam Position in the Extraction System of the ILU-10 Linear Electron Accelerator

A system for measuring beam position for a ILU-10 pulsed linear electron accelerator is described. The accelerator generates an electron beam with energy up to 5 MeV. The rf generator operates at 115 MHz in the pulsed mode with pulse duration of about 500 μsec and pulse repetition frequency up to 50 Hz. The average beam power can reach 60 kW. Two electrostatic sensors (pickups) are used to measure the position of the beam. The principle of operation of the measurement apparatus is based on homodyne detection of the signals from the pickups. The second harmonic of the frequency of the accelerating voltage of the accelerator power supply (230 MHz) is chosen as the working frequency. The detected signal is fed from each pickup plate into an integrator and then a ADC. The beam position is calculated on a computer. The resulting error in the beam coordinates is about 0.5 mm with a 110 mm in diameter position sensor.