Final Demo :: ECE 445 - Senior Design Laboratory

Final Demo

Description

The Final Demo is the single most important measure (and assignment) for the success of your project. The evaluation is holistic, focused on whether your project is completed, well-designed, reliable, and usable. You will demo your project to your professor, at least one TA, and a few peer reviewers. Other guests (e.g. alumni, high school students, sponsors, or other department affiliates) may also be present.

Requirements and Grading

Students must be able to demonstrate the full functionality of their project by proving that all the requirements in their Requirements and Verification (RV) table are met. Students must bring a printed out version of their block diagram, high level requirements, and RV table. Credit will not be given for feature which cannot be demonstrated.

For tests that are lengthy or require equipment not available at the time of demo, students should have their lab notebooks or printouts ready to show testing data. For any portion of the project which does not function as specified, students should have hypotehses (and supporting evidence) of what is causing the problem. If your demo needs to happen somewhere that is not the Senior Design Lab, you must communicate this with your TA!

The design team should be ready to justify design decisions and discuss any technical aspect of the project or its performance (not just one's own responsibilities). Quantitative results are expected wherever applicable. The demo grade depends on the following general areas: See the Demo Grading Rubric for specific details, but in general, show the following:

  1. Completion: The project has been entirely completed.
  2. Integration: The project is well-integrated, looking more like a final product than a prototype.
  3. Performance: Performance is completely verified, and operation is reliable.
  4. Understanding: Everyone on the project team must must be able to demonstrate understanding of his/her technical work and show that all members have contributed significantly.
  5. Polish & Attention to Detail: The project is well-polished with the user in mind. Good attention to detail is afforded to useability, presentation, and packaging.

 

Submission and Deadlines

Signing-up for a demo time is handled through the PACE system. Again, remember to sign up for a peer review as well.

Resonant Cavity Field Profiler

Salaj Ganesh, Max Goin, Furkan Yazici

Resonant Cavity Field Profiler

Featured Project

# Team Members:

- Max Goin (jgoin2)

- Furkan Yazici (fyazici2)

- Salaj Ganesh (salajg2)

# Problem

We are interested in completing the project proposal submitted by Starfire for designing a device to tune Resonant Cavity Particle Accelerators. We are working with Tom Houlahan, the engineer responsible for the project, and have met with him to discuss the project already.

Resonant Cavity Particle Accelerators require fine control and characterization of their electric field to function correctly. This can be accomplished by pulling a metal bead through the cavities displacing empty volume occupied by the field, resulting in measurable changes to its operation. This is typically done manually, which is very time-consuming (can take up to 2 days).

# Solution

We intend on massively speeding up this process by designing an apparatus to automate the process using a microcontroller and stepper motor driver. This device will move the bead through all 4 cavities of the accelerator while simultaneously making measurements to estimate the current field conditions in response to the bead. This will help technicians properly tune the cavities to obtain optimum performance.

# Solution Components

## MCU:

STM32Fxxx (depending on availability)

Supplies drive signals to a stepper motor to step the metal bead through the 4 quadrants of the RF cavity. Controls a front panel to indicate the current state of the system. Communicates to an external computer to allow the user to set operating conditions and to log position and field intensity data for further analysis.

An MCU with a decent onboard ADC and DAC would be preferred to keep design complexity minimum. Otherwise, high MIPS performance isn’t critical.

## Frequency-Lock Circuitry:

Maintains a drive frequency that is equal to the resonant frequency. A series of op-amps will filter and form a control loop from output signals from the RF front end before sampling by the ADCs. 2 Op-Amps will be required for this task with no specific performance requirements.

## AC/DC Conversion & Regulation:

Takes an AC voltage(120V, 60Hz) from the wall and supplies a stable DC voltage to power MCU and motor driver. Ripple output must meet minimum specifications as stated in the selected MCU datasheet.

## Stepper Drive:

IC to control a stepper motor. There are many options available, for example, a Trinamic TMC2100. Any stepper driver with a decent resolution will work just fine. The stepper motor will not experience large loading, so the part choice can be very flexible.

## ADC/DAC:

Samples feedback signals from the RF front end and outputs the digital signal to MCU. This component may also be built into the MCU.

## Front Panel Indicator:

Displays the system's current state, most likely a couple of LEDs indicating progress/completion of tuning.

## USB Interface:

Establishes communication between the MCU and computer. This component may also be built into the MCU.

## Software:

Logs the data gathered by the MCU for future use over the USB connection. The position of the metal ball and phase shift will be recorded for analysis.

## Test Bed:

We will have a small (~ 1 foot) proof of concept accelerator for the purposes of testing. It will be supplied by Starfire with the required hardware for testing. This can be left in the lab for us to use as needed. The final demonstration will be with a full-size accelerator.

# Criterion For Success:

- Demonstrate successful field characterization within the resonant cavities on a full-sized accelerator.

- Data will be logged on a PC for later use.

- Characterization completion will be faster than current methods.

- The device would not need any input from an operator until completion.

Project Videos