Speaker
Description
SuperCDMS is searching for dark matter in the sub 10 GeV region using silicon and germanium detectors cooled to <20mK. The cooling is done with a suite of cryocoolers, including 2 Gifford-McMahon coolers, 3 pulse tube coolers, and one dilution refrigerator. For cryogenic control SuperCDMS relies on a large number of thermometers, heaters, pressure transducers, and valves to control and monitor both the cryogenic stages and the lab environment. In order to control and read out these devices we created a Programmable Logic Control (PLC) system. The system collects data from the sensors using a large array of EtherCAT modules from Beckhoff as well as several Arduinos and smaller computers. We use this data for our monitoring and alarms system. For monitoring the status of the experiment we’ve created a web page for members of the collaboration to access that displays the readings of each of our sensors. For the alarms we have scripts set up to send alerts to designated shifters when a sensor goes out of its expected range or part of the monitoring system itself stops working. The PLC system is also used to control important components using a TwinCAT interface also from Beckhoff. In this poster I will describe the technical design of this PLC system as well as the work we have done to make this system functional.
| Keyword-1 | Dark Matter |
|---|---|
| Keyword-2 | Cryogenics |
| Keyword-3 | Programmable Logic Controller |