Development of a Compact and User-friendly Ion Irradiation System Controlled Remotely through the Internet

Abstract

A compact and user-friendly ion irradiation system controlled remotely through the Internet was developed for the execution of collaboration experiments together with researchers at remote sites. Several hardware instruments and software programs were constructed and provided for the remote control of the system and for its connection to the Internet. Surface modification and analysis experiments with this system were remotely performed through the Internet. It was confirmed from the experiments that the present ion irradiation system was precisely controlled through the Internet and could be easily and safely used for the surface modification and analysis, that the normal communication speed of around 10 Mbps for the Internet was fast enough for the execution of such typical remote-controlled experiments, and also that an access to the system by a mobile phone was convenient and useful enough to check the condition of the system and experimental data.

Development of Compact Pulse Height Analyzer Modules Based on FPGA for E-Learning Type Exercises on Nuclear Reactor

“…From each university, through the Internet, each student had access to each PHA module placed near the Kinki University Reactor (Higashi-osaka city, Osaka). Each student in turn set the conditions of each PHA module and acquired data on variation of neutron flux by use of a BF 3 proportional counter and/or data on gamma-ray energy spectrum by use of a NaI(Tl) scintillation counter. No access error occurred for half a day of the exercises and it was confirmed that the developed compact PHA modules could be conveniently and successfully used for the neutron and gamma-ray measurement for the e-Learning type exercises on a training nuclear reactor.…”

“…The four PHA modules work independently in the FPGA (Cyclone EP1C3, ALTERA Corp.). Pulse signals from a BF 3 or NaI(Tl) detector followed by the amplifiers are fed to a free-running ADC (AD9225, Analog Devices; 12 bits, 20MSPS) and a stream of digitized data is fed in parallel into the four PHA modules.…”

“…In recent years, various trials and practical applications with the Internet have been reported as effective education tools. We have also proposed an e-Learning system with an ion accelerator [3][4] . Nowadays, in an e-Learning on nuclear engineering, it seems to become important to execute exercises on an actual nuclear reactor.…”

Development of a Compact and User-friendly Ion Irradiation System Controlled Remotely through the Internet

“…25,26) The 1 mm thick CR-39 (Trade name: BARYOTRAK) manufactured by Fukuvi Chemical Industry was used. At Setsunan University (at a remote site), a usual computer was prepared for the execution of this remote-controlled irradiation experiment.…”