Case Study: ISIS – Science and Technology Facilities Council achieves 20% accelerator performance increase with National Instruments PXI and LabVIEW

The ISIS Proton Synchrotron Beam Data Acquisition and Analysis Using NI PXI and LabVIEW

The ISIS facility, part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, needed to improve the beam diagnostic system for its 50 Hz synchrotron to better monitor and control the accelerator's performance. The challenge was to acquire more data with greater accuracy and speed to reduce beam loss, which was limiting the accelerator's capabilities and complicating maintenance.

National Instruments provided a solution based on its NI PXI and LabVIEW platforms. The vendor installed several new PXI-based data acquisition systems for beam loss, profile, and position monitoring. This new system provided higher-resolution data at faster speeds. With guidance from National Instruments engineers, the team created user-friendly LabVIEW interfaces to process and display the data, which contributed to a 20 percent increase in accelerator performance.

ISIS – Science and Technology Facilities Council

Sarah Whitehead

ISIS – Science and Technology Facilities Council