SPS is the second-largest machine in CERN’s accelerator complex. Measuring nearly 7 kilometres in circumference, it takes particles from the Proton Synchrotron and accelerates them to provide beams for the Large Hadron Collider, the NA61/SHINE and NA62 experiments, the COMPASS experiment and the CNGS project.
The SPS became the workhorse of CERN’s particle physics programme when it switched on in 1976. Research using SPS beams has probed the inner structure of protons, investigated nature’s preference for matter over antimatter, looked for matter as it might have been in the first instants of the universe and searched for exotic forms of matter. A major highlight came in 1983 with the Nobel-prize-winning discovery of W and Z particles, with the SPS running as a proton-antiproton collider.
The SPS operates at up to 450 GeV. It has 1317 conventional (room-temperature) electromagnets, including 744 dipoles to bend the beams round the ring. The accelerator has handled many different kinds of particles: sulphur and oxygen nuclei, electrons, positrons, protons and antiprotons.
Consolidation Objective
The power converters of the SPS machine and associated transfer lines are controlled with obsolete electronics based on VME technology. The CONS request SPS-R-WD-0001 (EDMS 1547743) documents the proposed actions to replace the controls infrastructure. In addition the systems are now extremely old and therefore the equipment where the control electronics are upgraded should also have their magnetic components renewed which reached their end of life. This concerns 180 converters. Finally the 4Q converters and the MSE converters are not compatible with an electronics upgrade and require to be replaced.
The goal is to irradiate the obsolete MUGEF control system by LS3 for all power converters in the SPS complex. The first phase has been completed during LS2 where all systems in building SR2 and building SR8 have been updated. The second phase for LS3 will concern the SPS ring, TT10, TI2 (all), TI8 (all).
Project Team | EPC Responsible | TBD |
| Team members | E.Coulot, L. De Oliveira, G. Le Godec, S.Reignier |
Project documentation
Project and quality
| Project on EDMS | edms folder |
| Project on INDICO | Indico pages |
| Project on DFS | .DFS |
| SY-EPC TM 20 Feb 2024 | .edms |
| SPS Planning meeting 18 April 2024 | .indico |
| Return of Experience Control Upgrade TI2_TI8 | .edms |
| Group meeting presentation June 2024 | .edms |
| Project mandate | |
| Milestone plan | |
| EVM Structure | |
Project background
| Consolidation request | .edms |
| ACC-CONS and HL-LHC projects covering the period LS3-LS4 | .edms |
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Technical documents
| SPS circuits inventory and consolidation Strategy | .edms |
| SPS circuits inventory limited to circuits used by BE/OP during MD periods | .edms |
| General list of circuits in BA1 for LS3 upgrade | |
| General list of circuits in BA2 for LS3 upgrade | .edms |
| General list of circuits in BB3 for LS3 upgrade | |
| General list of circuits in BA4 for LS3 upgrade | |
| General list of circuits in BB4 for LS3 upgrade | |
| General list of circuits in BA5 for LS3 upgrade | |
| General list of circuits in BA6 for LS3 upgrade | |
| General list of circuits in BA7 for LS3 upgrade | |
Functional documents
Procurement documents
SPS CONS: Control Upgrade Type 7
SPS CONS: Control Upgrade Type 10
SPS CONS: New POLARIS & NEPTUNE converters
SPS CONS: New magnetics for Thyristor converters
Safety related documents
Design
Tests and validation
| EXTERNAL SERVICES |
| DC cables responsibility | F.Bordry – Chamonix 2014 |
| Electrical Mains Infrastructure Requirements | POLARIS: edms. 2472159 NEPTUNE: |
| Water Cooling Infrastructure Requirements | POLARIS + NEPTUNE: |
| Building Floor Infrastructure Requirements | |
Project Timeline
The project timeline and milestones