Analysis and Automation of Calibration Process for Measurement Coils for Particle Accelerator Magnets

Various techniques are used to measure magnetic fields within the Magnetic Measurement (MM) section, all of which require the use of specific sensors. These sensors need to be calibrated in order to map the resulting signals to the characteristics of the magnetic field. Thus, the calibration procedure would benefit from being improved and made more stable, efficient, and technologically up-to-date. Consequently, to improve the efficiency of the calibration procedure and the work processes it was first necessary to analyze them and identify potential issues and weaknesses to be further addressed. The calibration procedure mainly suffered from too many manual operations, which were potential sources of error, and from outdated readout and data acquisition software and hardware. Firstly, a new software program had to be developed using a C++ framework called Flexible Framework for Magnetic Measurements (FFMM), that would automate the data acquisition and analysis. Next, a feasibility study had to be done to investigate the possibility of using a commercial multimeter as new hardware to integrate the signal coming from induction coils. Finally, a modeling process was undertaken to develop a new model of the primary processes of the MM section. The new model may serve as a basis for assessing the impact of issues and solutions to the overall process, and a model called Value Shop proved pertinent as a template. A wide range of technical and managerial concepts acquired throughout my studies, as well as further new concepts learned during my stay at CERN, proved to facilitate this work.