The recently developed vertical phase-space beam position and size monitor (ps-BPM) system has proven to be able to measure the electron-source position, angle, size and divergence simultaneously in the vertical plane at a single location of a beamline. The optimization of the ps-BPM system is performed by ray-tracing simulation to maximize the instrument sensitivity and resolution. The contribution of each element is studied, including the monochromator, the K-edge filter, the detector and the source-to-detector distance. An optimized system is proposed for diffraction-limited storage rings, such as the Advanced Photon Source Upgrade project. The simulation results show that the ps-BPM system can precisely monitor the source position and angle at high speed. Precise measurements of the source size and divergence will require adequate resolution with relatively longer integration time. research papers 1864 Samadi et al. Phase-space beam monitor for low-emittance light sourcesFigure 1Schematic of the ps-BPM system including a Bragg (a) or Laue (b) crystal monochromator, a K-edge filter in (d), and a detector which records both the unfiltered beam side (c) and filtered edge side (d) of the beam.