Development of VME system in RPC electronics for reactor neutrino experiment at Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant

VME system of the Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) electronics for the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment is described in this paper. A 9U VME RPC trigger module (RTM) is designed to process coincidence signals coming from front end cards (FECs), to generate local triggers and send them to FECs to select the hit data from RPC detector, to report trigger information to a master trigger system and receive cross triggers from the master trigger system. Another 9U VME readout module is designed to collect data from all FECs, to send out configurations to FECs, and to transmit collected hit data to the data acquisition system via VME bus. Test results prove that the VME system is capable of treating a maximum data rate (2.2 MB·s-1 ), without data loss.

Comparison of pulse-modulated and continuous operation modes of a radio-frequency inductive ion source

The paper describes an experimental study of the characteristics of a pulse-modulated radiofrequency(RF)discharge sustained at low pressures,typical of the operating modes of RF gridded ion sources.The motivation for the study is the question of whether the RF pulsemodulated mode can increase the efficiency of the ion source.The ion current values extracted from an RF inductive ion source operating in continuous and pulse-modulated modes were compared.The experimental data were also compared with the parameter calculations based on a0D numerical model of the discharge.The measurements showed that the pulse-modulated operation mode of the RF ion source had a noticeable advantage when the power of the RF generator was 140 W or lower.However,as the generator power increased,the advantage was lost because the pulse-modulated operation mode,having a higher RF power instant value,entered the region of existence sooner than the continuous mode,where the ion production cost begins to grow with RF power.

A high precision time-to-digital converter based on multi-phase clock implemented within Field-Programmable-Gate-Array

In this paper, the design of a coarse-fine interpolation Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) is implemented in an ALTERA’s Cyclone FPGA. The carry-select chain performs as the tapped delay line. The Logic Array Block (LAB) having a propagation delay of 165 ps in the chain is synthesized as delay cell. Coarse counters triggered by the global clock count the more significant bits of the time data. This clock is also fed through the delay line, and LABs create the copies. The replicas are latched by the tested event signal, and the less significant bits are encoded from the latched binary bits. Single-shot resolution of the TDC can be 60 ps. The worst Differential Nonlinearity (DNL) is about 0.2 Least Significant Bit (LSB, 165 ps in this TDC module), and the Integral Nonlinearity (INL) is 0.6 LSB. In comparison with other architectures using the synchronous global clock to sample the taps, this architecture consumed less electric power and logic cells, and is more stable.

A digitalizing board for the prototype array of LHAASO WCDA

In this paper,a digitalizing board for readout of PMT signals in the prototype array of WCDA(water Cerenkov detector array)for LHAASO(Large high altitude air shower observatory)is designed.The prototype array is composed of 9 PMTs,including the pulse time and charge measurement from the PMTs,and clock generation and trigger decision.In the digitalizing board,FPGA reconfiguration and data readout via VME bus are implemented.Test results show that the performances meet well with the requirements of readout electronics.It has been installed in Yangbajing and tests with the prototype array and DAQ is ongoing.

A new TOF system for target recoil-ion momentum spectroscopy at IMP

A high resolution time measurement system with high data transfer rate was designed for the COLTRIMS (Cold Target Recoil-Ion Momentum Spectroscopy) system in Institute of Modern Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences.It is used to measure the Time of Flight(TOF) with a high resolution for all 20 channels.Based on the PCI Extensions for Instrumentation(PXI) standard,the readout electronics system consists of one Clock-Trigger fan-out module and four TOF modules.Test results show that the system meets the demands of COLTRIMS,with a time resolution of better than 25 ps and a data transfer rate over 20 MB/s.

A precise time measurement evaluation board for a radiography system of high-Z materials

The time resolution of a radiography system for high-Z materials shall be at least 1 ns, hence the need of a time measurement system with a resolution of about 100 ps. In this paper, a Time Measurement Evaluation Board (TMEB) is developed to meet the need. It is based on the time-to-digital converter of ACAM TDC-GP2. Test results show an overall time resolution of 81 ps in detecting cosmic-rays with a plastic scintillator.

A beam position measurement system of fully digital signal processing at SSRF

This fully digital beam position measurement instrument is designed for beam position monitoring and machine research in Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. The signals received from four position-sensitive detectors are narrow pulses with a repetition rate up to 499.654 MHz and a pulse width of around 100 ps, and their dynamic range could vary over more than 40 dB in machine research. By the employment of the under-sampling technique based on high-speed high-resolution A/D conversion, all the processing procedure is performed fully by the digital signal processing algorithms integrated in one single Field Programmable Gate Array. This system functions well in the laboratory and commissioning tests, demonstrating a position resolution (at the turn by turn rate of 694 kHz) better than 7 μm over the input amplitude range of -40 dBm to 10 dBm which is well beyond the requirement.

A Measure of Non-Classicality of Even and Odd Coherent States

A measure of non-classicality of even and odd coherent states is studied. We first calculate the Wigner functions of the even and odd coherent states, which consists of two terms： the positive-definite Gaussian term and the wave term with negativity, and then calculate the integrated value εmax of the wave term of the Wigner functions of the even and odd coherent states in their area with negativity, and use εmax to measure non-classicality of the even and odd coherent states. For the even and odd coherent states with certain photon count, it is very convenient for us to use εmax to measure their non-classicality. The methods of our definition and calculation for εmax have theoretical reference value.

Clock distribution system for large high altitude air shower observatory

In this paper,we report a clock distribution system for Water Cherenkov Detector Arrays(WCDAs) in Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory(LHAASO) project.The designed electronics system is of high performance in implementing the clock distribution among detectors of a large scale of dimension.Based on Serializer/Deserializer(SerDes) and fiber transmission,the clock distribution system is the modules of central back end to distributed front end.The clock distribution system has been evaluated with a two modules system.While all the four SerDes candidates for clock transmission with jitters below 17 ps,the DS92LV16 has a fixed phase relationship between transmission clock and recovered clock,hence its use in LHAASO WCDAs.

LUT-based non-linearity compensation for BES III TOF’s time measurement

The impact of the integral non-linearity (INL) to the time resolution of HPTDC (High Performance Time to Digital Converter) is presented in this paper.An INL correction method based on look-up table (LUT),is proposed to minimize such INL and improve the time resolution.This scheme is implemented in a single Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device for real-time compensation.The INL characteristic estimation is based on a statistical approach,in which a sufficiently large number of random input signals are measured.The prototype tests show that the deviation for time resolution due to INL can be reduced greatly,from more than 80 ps to less than 20 ps,which can meet the requirement of BES (Beijing Spectrometer) III Time-Of-Flight detector.

Waveform digitization utilizing switched-capacitor arrays

Compared with traditional waveform digitization with flash-ADCs, waveform digitization with switched-capacitor arrays (SCAs) is able to achieve the sampling speed above 1 GS/s without degrading the analog to digital conversion precision significantly. In this paper, we present the implementation of a fast waveform digitization system with the use of SCAs, and evaluate its performance of waveform digitization and the waveform timing. At about 5 GS/s, the dynamic input range of the digitizer is about 66 dB, and its timing precision is about 20 ps (RMS).

Power absorption,plasma parameters and wave structure in inductive RF plasma source with low value external magnetic field

The efficiency of radio-frequency(RF)power absorption,RF magnetic field structure and plasma parameters were measured in cylindrical inductive RF plasma sources 20 cm in diameter and 22,32,53 cm in length with a low value external magnetic field.The experiments were carried out in argon at pressures of 13-140 m Pa.The RF power supply changed from 200 W to 800 W.The spiral antenna was used for sustaining the discharge.It was shown that efficiency of RF power absorption depended nonlinearly on the external magnetic field values.At maximal values of the RF power absorption efficiency,the axial distributions of longitudinal Bzand azimuthal Bφcomponents of RF magnetic field manifested the formation of the partially standing wave with a half wavelength close to 8 cm.At the same conditions,the axial dependence of the radial RF magnetic field component Brdiffered drastically.It was concluded that the Bz and Bφamplitudes were largely determined by the RF field of Trivelpiece-Gould wave,while Br amplitude represented the radial RF field of the helicon wave.

Experimental study of a low-pressure hybrid RF discharge

Experimental study of the low-pressure hybrid RF discharge with both inductive and capacitive channels was carried out. The RF power unit consists of inductor(antenna) and capacitor plates connected in parallel to the same RF power source. A separating capacitor Csepis included into the circuit between the antenna ends and the lead connected to the discharge capacitor plate in order to prevent the closing of the capacitive circuit through direct current by inductor and to control the contribution of capacitive channel to discharge sustaining. It is shown that at low power of the RF power source, power coupling to the discharge mainly occurs through the capacitive channel. Increasing the power of the RF power source increases the power coupled in the inductive channel, electron density, and current flowing through the capacitive channel. This leads to increasing voltage drop on the separating capacitor and partial cutoff of the capacitive channel. At separating capacitance values below certain value(below 50 pF in the present experiments), the self-bias of the loaded plate of the discharge capacitor becomes positive indicating that the thickness of the electrode sheath of the loaded electrode decreases compared to thickness of the sheath of the grounded electrode. The thickness of the space-charge sheath of the grounded electrode decreases with increasing power coupled to the plasma. At separating capacitance below 50 pF, higher harmonics of the RF voltage and current are actively generated in the capacitive discharge channel. Increasing the separating capacitance leads to decreasing electron density, increasing effective electron temperature and more effective RF energy coupling to plasma due to increasing relative importance of the capacitive discharge channel.

Development of a particle swarm optimization based support vector regression model for titanium dioxide band gap characterization

Energy band gap of titanium dioxide(TiO_2) semiconductor plays significant roles in many practical applications of the semiconductor and determines its appropriateness in technological and industrial applications such as UV absorption, pigment,photo-catalysis, pollution control systems and solar cells among others. Substitution of impurities into crystal lattice structure is the most commonly used method of tuning the band gap of TiO_2 for specific application and eventually leads to lattice distortion. This work utilizes the distortion in the lattice structure to estimate the band gap of doped TiO_2, for the first time, through hybridization of a particle swarm optimization algorithm(PSO) with a support vector regression(SVR) algorithm for developing a PSO-SVR model. The precision and accuracy of the developed PSO-SVR model was further justified by applying the model for estimating the effect of cobalt-sulfur co-doping, nickel-iodine co-doping, tungsten and indium doping on the band gap of TiO_2 and excellent agreement with the experimentally reported values was achieved. Practical implementation of the proposed PSO-SVR model would further widen the applications of the semiconductor and reduce the experimental stress involved in band gap determination of TiO_2.

A real time transmission system of long distance for nuclear logging

Some specified chips in traditional Manchester-Ⅱencoding/decoding designs are used to guarantee strictly the stability of the input wave,otherwise the capacity of anti-interference and resilience are degraded seriously.In this paper,a new Manchester-Ⅱencoding/ decoding system is used for nuclear logging by a 7 000 m armoring cable.A thorough hardware wave tracking decoding algorithm is proposed and realized in a FPGA hardware chip.An on-site measurements show that this transmission system can decode correctly in real time,with a bit error rate of better than 10^(-10).

Plasma treatment for enhancement of the sorption capacity of carbon fabric

In this work we carried out an experimental investigation into enhancement of the sorption capacity of carbon fabric using plasma treatment methods.Carbon fabric is based on viscose fiber and is hydrophobic by nature.Enhancement of the fabric sorption capacity is required for its application in medicine.For this purpose,two plasma treatment methods were considered,i.e.atmospheric nonequilibrium radiofrequency(RF)discharge and a vacuum RF plasma source with an external magnetic field.Samples treated by atmospheric discharge demonstrated aging effects during the first week after treatment.The sorption capacity of samples treated by the RF plasma source was stable over the same period and reached values as high as 0.95.Parameters of the beam created by the vacuum RF plasma source were analyzed and dependences of the fabric sorption capacity and specific surface area on plasma treatment time were investigated.We found that sorption capacity reached its maximum value after 30 min of treatment and did not change significantly if processing was continued,while the specific surface area reached its maximum after 3 min of treatment and quickly decreased after that.It was found that the micropore structure of the fabric remained almost the same during plasma treatment.The volume of mesopores in a unit of the fabric mass(specific volume)doubled during the first 5 min of treatment and returned to initial values after 30 min of treatment.The sorption capacity continued to increase even when the specific surface area decreased after reaching its peak value.This indicates the important role of surface functional groups formed on carbon fibers during plasma treatment.This is consistent with the results of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis showing changes in surface oxidation during plasma treatment.

A data transmission method for particle physics experiments based on Ethernet physical layer

Due to its advantages of universality, flexibility and high performance, fast Ethernet is widely used in readout system design for modern particle physics experiments. However, Ethernet is usually used together with the TCP/IP protocol stack, which makes it difficult to implement readout systems because designers have to use the operating system to process this protocol. Furthermore, TCP/IP degrades the transmission efficiency and real-time performance. To maximize the performance of Ethernet in physics experiment applications, a data readout method based on the physical layer（PHY） is proposed. In this method, TCP/IP is replaced with a customized and simple protocol, which makes it easier to implement. On each readout module, data from the front-end electronics is first fed into an FPGA for protocol processing and then sent out to a PHY chip controlled by this FPGA for transmission.This kind of data path is fully implemented by hardware. From the side of the data acquisition system（DAQ）,however, the absence of a standard protocol causes problems for the network related applications. To solve this problem, in the operating system kernel space, data received by the network interface card is redirected from the traditional flow to a specified memory space by a customized program. This memory space can easily be accessed by applications in user space. For the purpose of verification, a prototype system has been designed and implemented.Preliminary test results show that this method can meet the requirements of data transmission from the readout module to the DAQ with an efficient and simple manner.

A new method of waveform digitization based on time-interleaved A/D conversion

Time interleaved analog-to-digital conversion （TIADC） based on parallelism is an effective way to meet the requirement of the ultra-fast waveform digitizer beyond Gsps. Different methods to correct the mismatch errors among different analog-to-digital conversion channels have been developed previously. To overcome the speed limi- tation in hardware design and to implement the mismatch correction algorithm in real time, this paper proposes a fully parallel correction algorithm. A 12-bit l-Gsps waveform digitizer with ENOB around 10.5 bit from 5 MHz to 200 MHz is implemented based on the real-time correction algorithm.

A fast digital timing and analysis system based on real-time dCFD technique for nuclear physics experiments

In this paper a fast digital real-time spectrometer was developed for timing and analysis of nuclear pulse signals.The hardware system design and algorithm implementation with field-programming gate array(FPGA) and digital signal processor(DSP) were introduced.The performance of the digital constant fraction discrimination(dCFD) platform was experimentally tested with Agilent 80 MHz function/arbitrary waveform generator and LaCl 3:Ce 3+ scintillator detector for 22 Na positron annihilation gamma spectroscopy.The amplitude and time information of photon was online obtained.The energy resolution could be 5.525% and the timing resolution 293.75 ps,the system error estimation of dCFD approach was also studied.The results showed that this spectrometer achieved a timing resolution close to that of traditional CFD timing resolution with a more simplified system structure.

TOT measurement implemented in FPGA TDC

Time measurement plays a crucial role for the purpose of particle identification in high energy physics experiments. With increasingly demanding physics goals and the development of electronics, modern time measurement systems need to meet the requirement of excellent resolution specification as well as high integrity. Based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays（FPGAs）, FPGA time-to-digital converters（TDCs） have become one of the most mature and prominent time measurement methods in recent years. For correcting the time-walk effect caused by leading timing, a time-over-threshold（TOT） measurement should be added to the FPGA TDC. TOT can be obtained by measuring the interval between the signal leading and trailing edges. Unfortunately, a traditional TDC can recognize only one kind of signal edge, the leading or the trailing. Generally, to measure the interval, two TDC channels need to be used at the same time, one for leading, the other for trailing. However, this method unavoidably increases the amount of FPGA resources used and reduces the TDC＇s integrity.This paper presents one method of TOT measurement implemented in a Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA. In this method,TOT measurement can be achieved using only one TDC input channel. The consumed resources and time resolution can both be guaranteed. Testing shows that this TDC can achieve resolution better than 15 ps for leading edge measurement and 37 ps for TOT measurement. Furthermore, the TDC measurement dead time is about two clock cycles, which makes it good for applications with higher physics event rates.