508.58 MHz synchronous universal counter for beam control system of SPring-8

A synchronous universal counter was developed for beam handling and monitoring in SPring-8. It works at 508.58 MHz radio frequency and has a 30-bit width. Its two main features are a dividing function with an arbitrary positive integer and a digital delay function with a time interval over 2 s. The counter numbers all of the RF buckets of the SPring-8 storage ring from 0 to 2435. Successful installation of the counter and a signal transmission system with a low time jitters provided precise beam injection into a targeted RF bucket and furthermore into the RF buckets previously filled for addition. As an application, it can be used as a programmable digital delay module to give a reference timing for synchrotron light experiments. It can be adopted in most accelerators operated throughout the world to achieve easy beam injection. The design, performance and applications of the counter and a precise signal transmission system are described.