A Wire-Based Methodology to Analyse the Nanometric Resolution of an RF Cavity BPM

Resonant Cavity Beam Position Monitors (RF-BPMs) are diagnostic instruments capable of achieving beam position resolutions down to the nanometre scale. To date, their nanometric resolution capabilities have been predicted by simulation and verified through beam-based measurements with particle beams. In the frame of the PACMAN project at CERN, an innovative methodology has been developed to directly observe signal variations corresponding to nanometric displacements of the BPM cavity with respect to a conductive stretched wire. The cavity BPM of this R&D; study operates at the TM110 dipole mode frequency of 15GHz. The concepts and details of the RF stretched wire BPM test-bench to achieve the best resolution results are presented, along with the required control hardware and software.