An Enhanced Quench Detection System for Main Quadrupole Magnets in the Large Hadron Collider

To further improve the performance and reliability of the quench detection system (QDS) for main quadrupole magnets in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), there is a planned upgrade of the system during the long shutdown period of the LHC in 2019-2020. While improving the already existing functionalities of quench detection for quadrupole magnets and field-bus data acquisition, the enhanced QDS will incorporate new functionalities to strengthen and improve the system operation and maintenance. The new functionalities comprise quench heater supervision, interlock loop monitoring, power cycling possibility for the whole QDS and its data acquisition part, monitoring and synchronization of trigger signals, and monitoring of power supplies. In addition, the system will have two redundant power supply feeds. Given that the enhanced QDS units will replace the existing QDS units in the LHC tunnel, the units will be exposed to elevated levels of ionizing radiation. Therefore, it is necessary to design a radiation tolerant detection system. In this work, an overview of the design solution for such enhanced QDS is presented.