Student Abstracts: Engineering at BNL

DEVELOPMENT OF TiN COATING FOR RF VACUUM CHAMBERS. ALEX GRAY (Southern University, Baton Rouge, La 70807) DR. PING HE (Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973).
A thin film layer of titanium nitride (TiN) will coat the inner walls of the RF chambers for the US Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). The coating should be 'î 100nm in thickness. The TiN coating is used to reduce the secondary electron yield (SEY) that will occur inside the chamber due to the proton particle acceleration, thus making the chamber, in a sense, wear resistance. The TiN coating will be evaluated by it¡¦s surface properties, color dispersion, element content, and oxidation behavior.

Multiple Biometric Sensors Working on an Integrated Platform. MEIR HERSHCOVITCH (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139) UPRENDRA ROHATGI (Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973).
The use of biometric security systems are quickly becoming commonplace in many industries. However, as with any new technology, there are flaws and errors. Our goal is to create an integrated biometric security system that utilizes many devices such as fingerprint identification, hand recognition, voice recognition and face recognition. All of these devices have a small error rate working alone, however; working in unison their error rate decreases significantly. We took these four biometric devices and tried to make them work with our own code. It was necessary to purchase a fingerprint scanner from the market and then try to make it work on our own software. We built our hand recognition device. We also purchased a camera and a microphone for the face and voice recognition programs. After the devices were purchased or constructed, it was necessary to make them work on our own pieces of software. The advantage of programming our own software for each device is that later on it will be easier to integrate the 4 programs to work as one. The programming was done in Visual C++. So far we were able to get our software working with all the devices individually and are currently working on integrating all of them to work as one unit. Once this happens, it will hopefully revolutionize the sale of biometric security devices. It will hopefully convince companies to invest in not one, but a combination of biometric security devices which would now be available in one unit. This device would also make false identification far less common.

Pursuing the Prototype of a New Generation of Radiation Area Monitors. VIR ANGELO LONTOC (Essex County College, Newark, NJ 07107) VINCENT J. CASTILLO (Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973).
The radiation area monitors, commonly referred to as "chipmunks", that are currently used at the Collider-Accelerator (C-A) Complex at Brookhaven National Laboratory was designed more than two decades ago. This has led to the project of upgrading the design of the chipmunk. All aspects of the existing chipmunk, including the power supply, circuit components, sub-circuitry, and electronic packaging are being critically reviewed for modernization.

Two Dimensional X-Ray Detector Design. NICHOLAS LYNCH (Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015) GEORGE MAHLER (Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973).
The two-dimensional x-ray detector has the capability of pinpointing the vertical and horizontal position of an incident x-ray. It can then feed the information to a computer that can create an image displaying the position and frequency of the x-rays. The National Spherical Torus Experiment at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory requires such a device to study the plasma formed during nuclear fusion reactions. The detector consists of an argon or krypton gas chamber and a set of anode wires stretched perpendicularly across a set of cathode strips. The x-rays are absorbed by the gas and the resulting ionization collects across the anode and cathode. Based upon the horizontal and vertical positioning of the collected charges, and image can be formed displaying the location and intensity of the incident x-rays. Their application requires a detector with a particularly large viewing for low energy x-rays. These requirements create a set of design complications that must be overcome. Challenges include designing a support structure for the beryllium window, designing both the anode and cathode plates, and developing a gas chamber free of leaks.

Design of a Printed Circuit Board for the 5-Channel Noise Reduction/Isolation Circuit. OLUSOLA OLAODE (Monroe Community College, Rochester, NY 14623) OMAR L. GOULD (Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973).
Design of a Printed Circuit Board for the 5-Channel Noise Reduction/Isolation Circuit. OLUSOLA OLAODE (Monroe Community College, Rochester, NY 14621) O. GOULD (Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973). A printed circuit board is designed for an electronic circuit that provides increased noise immunity and electrical isolation of signals. An existing electrical schematic of a circuit that provides increased noise immunity and electrical isolation is modified from providing two signal channels to providing five signal channels. Noise can cause false triggering in electronic logic circuits. The purpose of the electronic circuit is to increase the noise immunity of the beam request signals entering the Linear Accelerator (LINAC) Timing System located in the LINAC control room. The original circuit was designed on a prototyping card with pre-drilled pads and wire connections. The noise immunity of the new electronic circuit is improved by the printed circuit board design. The 5-channel noise reduction and isolation circuit is to be mounted in an enclosure and installed into a 19" x 8.5" x 10" maximum rack space. The PC board layout was designed using Protel 99Se software and constructed with ProtoMat 92S manufactured by LPKF Laser & Electronics.

Web Base Electrometer Monitoring and Controlling Using Infrared Decoding Microcontrollers. CARLOS PENA (State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794) ANTHONY KUCZEWSKI (Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973).
There are many detectors requiring electrometers used at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS); most of the instruments are made by Keithley Instruments Inc. The objective is to allow for a much more inexpensive and convenient approach to beamline detection as well as noise reduction for user-operated beamlines when obsolete units need replacing. Commonly used for ion chambers and Passivated Implanted Planar Silicon (PIPS) detectors, this in-house designed operational-amplifier electrometer is connected to an embedded computer to allow for remote control accessibility. The variable gain electrometer (switchable from a gain of 105 to 1010 Volts/Ampere [V/A]) will respond to infrared (IR) commands decoded by a Programmable Interface Controller (PIC)16C54C microcontroller sent from an uCdimm Dragon Ball VZ microcontroller (MCU) using Panasonic's LN54 GaAs infrared Light Emitting Diode (LED). The communications between these microcontrollers is through a Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) IR signal with a 38kHz carrier frequency. Encoded in the pulse width modulated signal are preparatory pulses followed by an 8-bit word commonly used in consumer electronics. The transmitted signal is received by Panasonic's PNA4612M Series Photo Integrated Circuit infrared receiver demodulator and is decoded using the PIC16C54C into an address and a command for the electrometer. Each electrometer has it's own address and references the received address to determine whether the received command corresponds to that particular electrometer.The resulting web electrometer will provide and economical alternative for user-operated beamlines when they need to replace obsolete units.

The Design and Development of Proton Beam Dump Temperature Monitoring Sysem. LAV ROHATGI (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India, Kanpur, India, UP 208016) BRIAN OERTER (Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973).
Development of the proton beam dump temperature monitoring system for Spallatial Neutron Source (SNS), Oak Ridge National Lab, Tennessee. LAV ROHATGI (Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, Kanpur, UP-208016, India) B. OERTER (Brookhaven National Lab, Upton, NY-11973-5000). For any system to function properly it is necessary to maintain a the temperature within a fixed range. Similarly the proton beam dump system in the Spallatial Neutron Source in Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, also works within a fixed temperature range. So it becomes important to device a fail proof method of monitoring and controlling the temperature of this system. In order to monitor and control the temperature 28 thermocouples have been employed which are controlled by a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). This PLC sends the temperature over the Local Area Network (LAN) to a front end computer from where the data can be accessed and monitored and the alarm thresholds can be changed. If this threshold is exceeded the whole system is made to shut down. This system when implemented will protect the proton beam dump system and will also increase the safety of the system by shutting it down in case of overheating. Research Category: Engineering School Author Attends: Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India DOE National Laboratory Attended: Brookhaven National Laboratory Mentor's Name: Brian Oerter Phone: (631) 344-2799 e-mail Address: oerter@bnl.gov Presenter's Name: Lav Rohatgi Mailing Address: 32 Robinhood Lane City/State/Zip: Setauket, NY 11733 Phone: (631) 751-4539 e-mail Address: lav.rohatgi@iitk.ac.in Is this being submitted for publication? Yes DOE program: ERULF

Conversion of NSLS Accelerator Ring Survey Data into Global Coordinates. CHARIS WALKER (Saint Augustine's College, Raleigh, NC 27610) EDWIN HAAS (Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973).
The National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) operates two electron rings: an X-Ray Ring and a Vacuum Ultaviolet (VUV) ring. Both provide intense, focused light in different wavelength regions for scientific experiments. As part of the Mechanical Section at NSLS, surveyors align and monitor the position of any of the dipole magnets and beamline components. A small shift in the position of any of the dipole magnets would alter the positions of the orbiting operation. Positional data taken in local coordinates was compiled over the past several years, but was never converted into global coordinates hand never compared from year-to-year to determine if structural settling or shifting of magnet positions has occurred. Commercially available STAR*NET software was used to help automate the data processing and conversion of survey data into global coordinates. However, in order to understand and validate the data processing, manual data calculations were performed extensively. Trial-and-error of many different mathematical methods was used since source code was not provided. Using manual calculations, fairly close agreement with the computer calculations was obtained. The mathematics and data processing both posed many challenges due to the amount of data and the limited time to: determine the mathematics used, check the calculations manually, learn how to use the STAR*NET software, the process, and interpret the data.