Creation of a remotely monitored and controlled ion beam laboratory using novel hardware and software tools

Abstract The Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory (MIBL) at the University of Michigan houses three electrostatic accelerators and six ion sources, providing beams to five target chambers and a TEM via nine distinct beamlines. Such a large system incorporates numerous control and monitoring instruments that can more easily be managed through a digital remote interface system. MIBL has implemented a variety of standard laboratory hardware and custom alternative hardware and software tools into a remote interface system that provides for greater laboratory efficiency, increased application flexibility and information flow and reduced cost. The outcome is that users can operate three accelerators and their corresponding beamline system from one console using a master control program, eliminating the need to constantly traverse the facility to monitor and manipulate instruments. Furthermore, the digitalization and centralization of the data generated by each subsystem has allowed for logging and variable correlation that would otherwise be impossible at such a large scale, and enabled the future application of modern tools such as machine learning to enhance operational efficiency.