TAE Technologies

High-Fidelity Controls for Plasma Generator: One Step Closer to Clean Fusion Energy Illustration of the TAE Norman (C2-W) fusion device. TAE Technologies (TAE) advances fusion research using Speedgoat real-time target machines including over 400 I/O links as distributed high-fidelity and low-latency plasma controllers.

TAE Technologies, the fusion increase plasma performance and further optimized between power research company from temperature. consecutive experiments using the Foothill Ranch, California is Optometrist Algorithm, a joint advancing the field of plasma research partnership between TAE The Challenge physics with their innovative and . field-reversed configuration (FRC) A well-known challenge of plasma generator to create a fusion is keeping the plasma The Solution controlled fusion reaction. well centered and away from the confinement vessel walls long Speedgoat delivered the core TAE’s mission is to create and enough to release sufficient functionality and overall commercialize fusion energy that amounts of harvestable fusion acquisition and control system is sourced from a clean, safe, energy. setup, including implementation, and affordable -boron for TAE’s Norman. solution for a transformational Early FRCs in the field achieved source of electricity widely lifetimes of no more than a The use of the Simulink® and available in the future. millisecond. However, with HDL Coder™ workflow enables a Speedgoat’s contribution quick and easy transition from Their fifth-generation plasma alongside others, TAE’s Norman model-based designs to hardware, generator, Norman, is ~20 m in fusion device has achieved a thereby utilizing multi-gigabit length with a central confinement steady state operation of hot transceivers and the Xilinx® Aurora chamber surrounded by two field- FRC plasma (~ 30 Million degrees protocol. reversed formation sources and Celsius) for as long as the neutral four biased divertors. beam power input lasts (~ 30ms). Magnetic sensors are connected over an integrator circuit to the The controlled fusion reaction The single FRC is stabilized using differential analog input with up happens inside the confinement state of the art feedback control to 16 x IO335-325k I/O modules chamber when two FRCs are shot techniques. This requires the located inside of 4 x acquisition at supersonic speed from either plasma shape and position to systems from Speedgoat. This end towards each other. be inferred with low latency modular setup accommodates up (<10 μs) from hundreds of to 384 sensors, with allowance to The resulting collision transforms sensors located expand if required. kinetic energy into thermal outside the plasma. energy, merging the two into Each acquisition setup is also a single FRC plasma. Neutral The device settings of the equipped with IO342-1080k I/O beams are then applied to Norman fusion device are modules to act as a local control. The sampled magnetic field A/D The central control system • 2x FireFly ports for inter-module data are: includes: data transfer and communication. • logged and stored in the onboard • 2 x IO342-1450k I/O modules IO335-325k RAM at a 2.5 MHz running multiple and large The Results sample rate state-space models used for • filtered and downsampled at inference and control, with The following timeline illustrates the IO335-325k I/O module and ~10μs computation time and the achieved data paths and transferred to the IO342-1080k optimal resource optimization latencies: control modules at 166kHz • 8 x QSFP ports to send new • forwarded to the IO342-1080k control values to the various I/O utilizing Xilinx® Aurora power supplies protocol and copper cables.

t(μs)

0 0.4 2 4 5.6

Start of simultaneous Analog data received and Analog data transferred Data transmission over Data transmission analog input conversions filtering and downsampling from 4 x IO335-325k to fiber optic cables from 4 x over fiber optic cables to on the IO335 inside finished on the IO335 inside IO342-1080k utilizing Xilinx® acquisition systems to the the power supply systems 4 x acquisition systems 4 x acquisition systems Aurora 64B/66B protocol compute system utilizing utilizing Xilinx® Aurora internally inside the acquisi- Xilinx® Aurora 64B/66B 64B/66B protocol tion system protocol

“The Speedgoat solution provides a unique combination of high throughput, low latency I/O and a high-level programming workflow using MATLAB® scripts, Simulink® and HDL CoderTM, which is ideal for TAE’s fast paced research environment.” Jesús Antonio Romero, Lead Scientist, TAE Technologies

Acquisition and compute systems setup using multiple Performance real-time target machines, I/O modules and communication protocols for the Norman. Utilized Speedgoat products: Utilized MathWorks products: » 7 x Performance real-time target » MATLAB® machines » Simulink® » 4 x IO342-1450k-51-51 » MATLAB Coder™ » 5 x IO342-1080k-51-51 » Simulink Coder™ » 20 x IO335-325k » Simulink Real-Time™ » IO342-1080k-51-51 HDL Coder » HDL Coder™ Integration Package » Signal Processing Toolbox™ » IO342-1450k-51-51 HDL Coder » Fixed-Point Designer™ Integration Package » Stateflow®

Speedgoat GmbH Waldeggstrasse 30 3097 Liebefeld Switzerland www.speedgoat.com

19631 Pauling Foothill Ranch, CA 92610 USA www.tae.com

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