Magnetics Diagnostics at ITER Using Field Programmable Gate Array Technology

M. Baldris, R. Martí, I. Siewiera (GTD Sistemas de Información, Spain)

In ITER, the Plant System Controller (PSC) for the Magnetic diagnostic is the system responsible for managing the transmission of magnetic signals which come from the sensors located inside the nuclear fusion vessel and provide critical data on plasma conditions. After the PSC operations the signals are made accessible to Central Interlock System and several relevant networks, allowing the ITER scientists to know the plasma shape at any time. In this scope, GTD’s main objectives are to develop and document the final design of both ITER’s magnetics plant system controller and of the bespoke electronics. The designs are supported by prototyping activities, namely the development of the hardware and firmware of demonstrator integrator (integration for calculation of magnetic field) and interface (for acquiring, filtering, and performing remaining calculations) PCB boards, both based on FPGA technology. The FPGA chosen for the interface PCB boards is the Zynq MPSoC UltraScale+ from Xilinx, that gives the possibility to use the FPGA for DSP purposes and to develop critical timing designs; and the ARM processors to perform the protocol of the communications with the Central Interlock System and manage the FSM developed in the FPGA. The key tools used in this project are: Vivado Design Suite, Xilinx SDK, Altium