A VME-BASED QUENCH DETECTION AND LOGGING SYSTEM FOR SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETS

Quench detection is one of the crucial parts in the superconducting ma gnet test facility, specially related to the safety issue of the measu rement environment. Consequently, those old systems, mainly relying on analog/TTL gate technologies, tend to be carefully adopted with minim um modification even for a new measurement facility, to maintain the w orking functionality. For a new measurement environment, readjustment of the system is necessary to control the different noise environment, and to incorporate the new measurement system configuration. For this purpose, an understanding of the physics of the quench-induced signal s and noises is recommended to customize a new system. We have recentl y developed a prototype of the new fully digital quench detection syst em for the Magnet Test Lab. (MTL), Superconducting Super Collider (SSC ) Laboratory, based on five out-of-shelf VME cards supported by a real -time O/S VxWorks. The new digital system not only provides improved s ignal processing and additional logging functions, but also supports u ser-friendly interfacing of parameter control and status display. One demonstration shows the modularity, simplicity, versatility, and compa tibility of the new with the existing systems. This paper describes th e overall system design, with the development and test environment.