Profile grid monitor and first measurement results at the MedAustron accelerator

MedAustron is a synchrotron based ion beam therapy center located in Wiener Neustadt/Austria. The MedAustron accelerator design is based on CERN’s Proton-Ion Medical Machine Study (PIMMS) [1] and is currently in the accelerator installation and beam commissioning phase. One of the basic measurements for commissioning of an accelerator is also beam profile measurement. The beam at the end of the Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT) line and in the Medium Energy Beam Transport (MEBT) line (after the fast deflector) is pulsed. Due to pulsed beam the Wire Scanner Monitor (WSX) cannot be used. To measure a beam profile at these locations a new monitor has been developed – Profile Grid Monitor (PGX). The PGX is also known as harp grid monitor and it contains 64 wires positioned vertically and 64 wires horizontally for measuring the beam profile in both transverse planes. The PGX acquires the current of all 128 wires simultaneously, converts it to voltage, digitizes the values and processes the converted data. The last part of the PGX is a graphical interface for control of the PGX and the display of the beam profile.