An FPGA-Based Quench Detection and Protection System for Superconducting Accelerator Magnets

A new quench detection and protection system for superconducting accelerator magnets was developed for the Fermilab’s Magnet Test Facility (MTF). This system is based on a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) module, and it is made of mostly commercially available, integrated hardware and software components. It provides all the functions of our existing VME-based quench detection and protection system, but in addition the new system is easily scalable to protect multiple magnets powered independently and provides a more powerful user interface and analysis tools. The new system has been used successfully for testing LHC Interaction Region Quadrupoles correctors and High Field Magnet HFDM04. In this paper we describe the system and present results.