Trainee

RF Cavity Simulator for LLRF Lab Testing

Your tasks

The main goal of the project is development of an emulator of resonance cavities for beam acceleration. The emulator should be in a form of a stand‐alone electronic box which can be connected to a Low Level Radio Frequency (LLRF) system for laboratory tests. Such platform should allow continuous studies of control algorithms and firmware / software of the LLRF systems without disturbing the real cavity operation. Such a platform would also be used for training of on‐call duty staff without risk of damaging real high‐power RF system.

Your tasks will be:
Implementation of the RF cavity simulator:
  • Together with the LLRF experts you will learn the actual basic model of the RF system simulator which includes a resonance cavity simulator. You will work out model extension for configurable bandwidth and detuning, emulation of a resonator tuner, beam loading effects, disturbances like resonator detuning due to temperature drifts, high power amplifier non‐linearity and noise emulation
  • With support of electronic engineers you will implement the model extensions in a system on chip (SoC) using VHDL and C
  • Commissioning and test of the simulator on a given evaluation board with Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+

Your profile

  • You study physics or electrical‐engineering (minimum 4 semesters)
  • You had a course in VHDL and C programming
  • You have some experience with Xilinx Vivado tool and ModelSim
  • You have basic knowledge in digital signal processing and hands‐on experience with Python
  • You are open‐minded, communicative and enjoy working in an international team
  • You have not yet completed your Master’s thesis

We offer

Our institution is based on an interdisciplinary, innovative and dynamic collaboration.

The employment contract will be limited to 3 months.

For further information, please contact Dr. Waldemar Koprek, phone +41 56 310 37 65.

Please submit your application online for the position as a Trainee (index no. 8221‐T1).

Paul Scherrer Institut, Human Resources Management, Patrizia Meister, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland