CAENels / Products / Beamline Electronic Instrumentation / Beam Stabilization / BEST

BEST

BEST

Beam Enhanced Stabilization Technology

Turnkey instrumentation and software suite specially designed to easily provide the capabilities for simultaneously controlling position (X, Y) and intensity (I0) of the photon beam in synchrotron radiation X-ray beamlines.

 

See accessories

 
  • Overview
  • Features
  • Technical specifications
  • Ordering options
  • Documentation
  • Software/Firmware

Overview

BEST

Control your beam position and intensity with a click!

The Beam Enhanced Stabilization Technology (BEST) by CAEN ELS is the only complete turnkey system for beam position intensity stabilization.

An extensive set of software applications, plugins and tools combined with powerful hardware allows users to perform and optimized their experiments and characterization on X-ray beamlines around the world.

BEST
Distributed architecture for maximum performance.

The BEST system is designed on a distributed architecture that allows installing all electronic building blocks as close as possible to the corresponding device – e.g. a piezo driver or a photon BPM. The system is composed by three main building blocks:

  • the READOUT block;
  • the CONTROL AND INTERFACE unit;
  • the ACTUATOR block.
BEST
Optimize and adapt your beamline experiments.

The FPGA-based hardware architecture allows performing the control algorithms at a maximized speed and with very low latency in order to guarantee full effectiveness of the BEST correction performance over a frequency spectrum up to several kHz. The slower and non-critical tasks (i.e. configuration commands) are separately performed at a higher level on the Linux OS Central Unit with dedicated software.

BEST
Interface to the Control System via EPICS IOC or Web Server.

The readout block is represented by the TetrAMM device: a 4-channel bipolar picoammeter with an integrated HV bias voltage source that can be connected directly to a four-quadrant phBPM detector – e.g. diamond detector, ion chamber or quadrature diodes.

This readout block has an independent 10/100/1000 Mbit Ethernet interface for standard communication and can be also used as a stand-alone readout unit. In addition to this, the TetrAMM has a high-throughput and low-latency SFP link that guarantees interface to the control unit.

The control and interface unit is the “brain” of the entire system and it is made by a 19″-1U rack that interconnects and interfaces to the other building blocks and gives access and control to the users directly via a Gigabit Ethernet interface. The control interface has a dedicated application that allows to set the parameters to configure the beamline system (detectors, piezo actuators, geometry) and control the photon beam behavior.

The EPICS IOC is also freely available to our users.

Features

  • TURNKEY Instrumentation and Software Suite
  • Readout module - i.e. TetrAMM - for photon BPM
  • Actuation module - i.e. PreDAC multichannel high-precision DAC - for piezo driver
  • Control & Interface unit
  • X, Y and I0 correction and stabilization
  • Configurability to different detector geometries and configurations
  • Firmware remote update on all building blocks
  • Low-latency and high-speed links allow for higher frequency beam instability compensation - e.g. mechanical vibrations
  • 10/100/1000 Ethernet TCP-IP control

Technical specifications

  • WBEST2HV05PX
  • WBESTNOPICOA

Model

WBEST2HV05PX

WBESTNOPICOA

Control Interface

10/100/1000 Mbit Ethernet TCP-IP

10/100/1000 Mbit Ethernet TCP-IP

BEST Application

Local GUI

Local GUI

Standard Configuration

1 x TetrAMM picoammeter
1 x PreDAC actuator unit (2-channel)
1 x BEST control and interface central unit

1 x TetrAMM picoammeter
1 x PreDAC actuator unit (2-channel)
1 x BEST control and interface central unit

Extended Configuration

2 x TetrAMM picoammeters
1 x PreDAC actuator unit (up to 4 channels)
1 x BEST control and interface central unit

2 x TetrAMM picoammeters
1 x PreDAC actuator unit (up to 4 channels)
1 x BEST control and interface central unit

Control and Interface Unit OS

Linux OS (Ubuntu 20.04)

Linux OS (Ubuntu 20.04)

Compensation Loops

Horizontal position (X)
Vertical position (Y)
Intensity (I0) - optional

Horizontal position (X)
Vertical position (Y)
Intensity (I0) - optional

Detector Configurations

Quadrature detectors (45° or 90°)

Quadrature detectors (45° or 90°)

Loop Communication Interface

SFP - Small Form Factor Pluggable

SFP - Small Form Factor Pluggable

Additional Features

- Firmware Remote Upgrade for each building block
- EPICS IOC
- TetrAMM Oscilloscope "Pyscope" (with FFT and CSP)
- Frequency Analysis Tool (included in the Local GUI)
- Data Logger

- Firmware Remote Upgrade for each building block
- EPICS IOC
- TetrAMM Oscilloscope "Pyscope" (with FFT and CSP)
- Frequency Analysis Tool (included in the Local GUI)
- Data Logger

Control Interface

10/100/1000 Mbit Ethernet TCP-IP

10/100/1000 Mbit Ethernet TCP-IP

BEST Application

Local GUI

Local GUI

Standard Configuration

1 x TetrAMM picoammeter
1 x PreDAC actuator unit (2-channel)
1 x BEST control and interface central unit

1 x TetrAMM picoammeter
1 x PreDAC actuator unit (2-channel)
1 x BEST control and interface central unit

Extended Configuration

2 x TetrAMM picoammeters
1 x PreDAC actuator unit (up to 4 channels)
1 x BEST control and interface central unit

2 x TetrAMM picoammeters
1 x PreDAC actuator unit (up to 4 channels)
1 x BEST control and interface central unit

Control and Interface Unit OS

Linux OS (Ubuntu 20.04)

Linux OS (Ubuntu 20.04)

Compensation Loops

Horizontal position (X)
Vertical position (Y)
Intensity (I0) - optional

Horizontal position (X)
Vertical position (Y)
Intensity (I0) - optional

Detector Configurations

Quadrature detectors (45° or 90°)

Quadrature detectors (45° or 90°)

Loop Communication Interface

SFP - Small Form Factor Pluggable

SFP - Small Form Factor Pluggable

Additional Features

- Firmware Remote Upgrade for each building block
- EPICS IOC
- TetrAMM Oscilloscope "Pyscope" (with FFT and CSP)
- Frequency Analysis Tool (included in the Local GUI)
- Data Logger

- Firmware Remote Upgrade for each building block
- EPICS IOC
- TetrAMM Oscilloscope "Pyscope" (with FFT and CSP)
- Frequency Analysis Tool (included in the Local GUI)
- Data Logger

Ordering options

Ordering code

Description

Action

WBEST2HV05PX

BEST – 2-ch PreDAC, TetrAMM with +500V HV, Central Unit with embedded control system and EPICS IOC

Quote

WBESTNOPICOA

BEST – 2-ch PreDAC, Central Unit with embedded control system, EPICS IOC, W/OUT TetrAMM

Quote

Documentation

BEST - User's Manual [PDF]

Last reviewed: 2024-08-29
ⓘ More infoRevision: 2

TetrAMM - User's Manual [PDF]

Last reviewed: 2025-12-16
ⓘ More infoRevision: 4.4

BEST Update Utility - User's Manual [PDF]

Last reviewed: 2023-02-03
ⓘ More infoRevision: 1.1

libbest Command Reference Manual [PDF]

Last reviewed: 2023-02-03
ⓘ More infoRevision: 1.8.17

BEST EPICS Command Reference Manual [PDF]

Last reviewed: 2025-12-18
ⓘ More infoRevision: 1.0.34

PreDAC - User's Manual [PDF]

Last reviewed: 2024-08-29
ⓘ More infoRevision: 2

DEVICE MANAGER - Quick Start Guide [PDF]

Last reviewed: 2025-07-23
ⓘ More infoRevision: 2.1

Software/Firmware

Updated: 2023-01-23 - 3.88 MB
ⓘ More info Version: 1.2.20

Updated: 2023-02-09 - 3.74 MB
ⓘ More info Version: 1.0.04

Updated: 2026-04-01 - 44.48 MB
⟳ Changelog ⓘ More info Version: 2.2.8
OS: Linux

Updated: 2026-04-01 - 42.70 MB
⟳ Changelog ⓘ More info Version: 2.2.8
OS: Windows

Accessories

WBEST3DACXAA - Additional DAC Channel

WBEST3DACXAA - Additional DAC Channel

High Precision Additional DAC channel for PreDAC

Copyright CAEN ELS s.r.l.