Laser Control & Instrumentation Division
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Other Developments
  • Stepper Motor Controllers for Various Systems
  • Interlock Monitoring System for High Power Laser Amplifiers
  • Water Supply Automation System for RRCAT
  • Programmable Nanosecond Delay Generator Unit
  • Search and Secure System for Peta-Watt Laser System
Stepper Motor controllers for Various Systems

Motion control systems are integral part of most of the physics experiments. In last few years we have developed a wide range of stepper motor controllers to cater requirements of various projects of Laser and Accelerator. A versatile and flexible design caters the requirements of variety of applications. Modular and scalable architecture facilitates multi-axis controller arrangement, where different types of stepper motors with different ratings and motion parameters are integrated in one single unit and controlled independently. We have customized these systems for different users as per requirements of various types of experiments.

A wide range of stepper motor driver boards are designed, which are controlled by 8051 based CPU board. These controllers are based on constant-current topology to utilize maximum available torque of the stepper motor. We have developed driver cards for maximum current ratings of stepper motor 0.5A,1A, 2A, 3A and 5.6A, which serve to a wide range of torque requirements.




Applications in which the Stepper motor Controllers are deployed:

  1. Beam Profile Measurement System for IRFEL
  2. Bead-pull mechanism of RF field measurement of the resonant structure at IRFEL
  3. Two-axis stepper motor controller for Low Level RF measurement of IRFEL system
  4. Undulator magnetic field measurement system at IRFEL
  5. Experimental setup at Indus-1 reflectivity beam line for filter alignment system
  6. Experimental setup at Indus-2 beam line BL-07, BL-16
  7. Laser plasma interaction experiments at Laser Plasma Division
  8. Alignment of 6” mirror mounts at High Power Laser Chain
  9. Beam profile measurement system at CUTE-FEL
  10. Tuning of pre-bencher cavity at CUTE-FEL
  11. Raster-scanning of target foil in Titanium Oxide nano-particle synthesis experiment using CO2 Laser
  12. Stretch-wire magnetic field measurement system for AMTD
  13. Magnetic Field Measurement system using Hall-Probe for AMTD
  14. Photo luminescence spectroscopy experiment at Semiconductor and Devices Lab
  15. Nuclear fuel pellet inspection and tube inspection system for NFC
  16. Optical delay path generation in pump-probe spectroscopy experiments
  17. Ion-beam sputtering experiment for developing thin film and multilayer structures.
  18. Experimental setup of high order harmonic generation in Ti:Sapphire lab


Interlock Monitoring System for High Power Laser Amplifiers

In HPL there are cooling circuitries for flash lamps. This circuit has pump to ensure continuous flow on the system. Sometimes due to dry run these pumps tends to be damage. To prevent dry run condition we have put interlock circuit which ensures pump OFF at dry run condition. Hence after making the pump ON, a timer starts and after a delay of 30sec it ensures that the flow is there in the line. If no flow condition occurs at this time it is made OFF. Coolant pump interlocks for A1-A6 amplifiers have been interfaced. The flow signals are interfaced to PLC for data monitoring and alarming purpose.




Water Supply Automation System for RRCAT

RRCAT colony water supply system is having various manual operated valves & pumps, bore-wells at distributed locations. These devices need to be replaced and automated to control from a single location. A distributed control system is in place for this requirement. It consists of no. of control devices like butterfly valves, level sensors/transmitters, flow sensors, pressure sensors. Details of the system is as follows:

  1. PLC based supervisory control & data acquisition system
  2. Control & monitoring devices are located in the area of 3-4 km, valves are submersed in water
  3. Master control room at colony pump house
  4. Multiple slave panels at 5 different locations
  5. Various type of control & monitoring devices like flow meter, valves, bore wells, pumps, pressure, level switches
  6. Interlocks for safe operation of devices
  7. Ethernet communication between PC & master PLC
  8. 2-wire RS-485/wireless communication between master & slave
  9. Bilingual graphical user interface for operator


Programmable Nanosecond delay generator unit

Low cost multi-channel programmable delay generators having range of 255 ns and resolution of 8 bits are developed. These units have features like signal transmission on optical fibers, sub-nanosecond jitter, external/internal trigger, sync out.




Search and Secure System for Peta-Watt Laser System

As per AERB guidelines, a search and scram system is mandatory safety requirement for Petta-watt laser system. The aim for implementation of this system is to search the high radiation area for any human occupancy and ensure that no person is trapped in this area before laser is made ON. In case the person is trapped inside, he should be able to switch OFF the laser from high radiation area. Personal Safety interlock system is implemented to ensure safety to the personnels working in the area. Five search & secure units are installed to cover the entire area of experiment hall. In addition to these units, door interlock units are also installed to prevent accidental entry to experiment hall once search operation is completed. Audio-visual alarming is present for warning. Public address system is installed to indicate actual laser operation status.


Search and Scram Monitoring Unit Front Panel            Search and Scram Monitoring Unit Back Panel


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