arXiv subjects

B. Satyanarayana

Publications and source records attributed to B. Satyanarayana.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Cosmic Muon Explorer: A Portable Detector for Cosmic Muon Flux Measurements and Outreach

In this paper, we present development of a portable cosmic muon tracker tailored for both on-site measurements of cosmic muon flux as well as for outreach activities. The tracker comprises of two 70 mm x 70 mm plastic scintillators, wavelength shifting (WLS) fibers, and Hamamatsu made Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) S13360-2050VE. The detector uses plastic scintillator panels optically coupled to WLS fibers, which transmit scintillation light to the SiPMs. SiPM signals are routed to an electronics board equipped with op-amp amplifiers and a peak-hold circuit connected to an ESP32 microcontroller module. When muons traverse through both scintillators the light emitted is collected by the SiPMs, and thus generating signals proportional to the incident light intensity. These signals are then amplified and the pulse peak is held for 500 us. A high speed discriminator is used to generate trigger logic signals. The peak analog voltage is digitized using the onboard ADC of the ESP32 when a coincident trigger occurs. The SiPMs are powered by a High Voltage bias supply module while an onboard BMP180 module measures temperature and pressure. For real-time event tagging, a GPS module is interfaced with the ESP-32. Housed within an acrylic box measuring 100 mm x 100 mm x 100 mm the detector can be powered using a 5V 1A USB power bank. An open source mobile application was used for real-time monitoring. This versatile and cost-effective portable detector facilitates cosmic muon research in various experimental settings. Its portability and low power requirements enable on-site measurements in environments such as tunnels, caves as well as high altitudes.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2026

Design and Development of Portable RPC-Based Cosmic Muon Tracker

Primary cosmic rays when interact with our atmosphere, produce a cascade of lighter secondary particles namely pion, kaon, neutrons, muons, electrons, positrons and neutrinos. Muons are one of the most abundant and easily detectable particles at the ground surface using a large variety of particle detectors. Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) of 2m x 2m in dimension were developed to be used in large scale as the active detector elements in the Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) which was planned to be built by the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO). As a spin-off of this work, a portable stack of eight, one square foot RPC detectors is developed named as Cosmic Muon Tracker (CMT). It could be used to conduct small-scale particle detector experiments as well as training Students. We will discuss design, integration, characterisation and some of the applications of this detector in this paper.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2026

Design and Implementation of a UDP-Based Command Interface for the INO ICAL Experiment

Efficient command interface is a critical requirement for experiments employing a large number of front-end DAQ modules and control servers. In the context of the INOICAL (India-based Neutrino Observatory Iron Calorimeter) experiment, this involves 28,800 Resistive Plate Chamber(RPC), charged particle detectors. The acquisition and control of these detectors are facilitated through Front End data acquisition modules known as RPC-DAQs. These modules consists of Ethernet interfaces for data and command connectivity to a server. Each module acts as a network node with a unique IP address. The collective group of hundreds of modules is controlled by a common server over a Local Area Network (LAN). UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is the most commonly used networking protocol which supports Multicast as well as Unicast, can be easily adapted to INO ICAL Experiment. A server can send commands to group of DAQs or any particular DAQ. But UDP may have the problem of packet loss and reliability. To mitigate these issues, this paper suggests a simpler approach that modifies the UDP protocol by implementing a handshaking scheme and checksum, similar to those found in more reliable protocols like TCP. The proposed solution optimizes the use of UDP as a reliable command interface in the INO ICAL experiment, ensuring seamless data acquisition and control. Also, this paper shows the performance study of the custom hybrid UDP Command Interface in the prototype ICAL experiment called Mini Iron Calorimeter (Mini ICAL) which houses 20 units of RPCs and electronics. This work not only addresses the challenges of the INO ICAL experiment but also underscores the adaptability and robustness of the proposed protocol for usage in mini-ICAL and beyond.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2025

Tailored Thermal and Mechanical Performance of Biodegradable PLA-P(VDF-TrFE) Polymer Blends

The development of polymer blends has emerged as a strategic approach for designing multifunctional materials with enhanced tailored characteristics. Current work investigates and reports for the first time, the structure-property relationships in free-standing blend films of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) and polylactic acid (PLA), prepared to evaluate their suitability for functional applications. For this investigation, films of approximately 40 $μ$m thick were fabricated by systematically varying the P(VDF-TrFE):PLA ratio. Thermal analysis revealed a higher PLA crystallinity at 25\% P(VDF-TrFE) content, while Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy showed the electroactive $β$-phase fraction to be highest in the 50:50 composition. These findings correlated with tensile strength measurements and morphology, demonstrating that molecular ordering and phase distribution significantly influence the mechanical performance. The 25:75 blend exhibited superior mechanical strength due to enhanced PLA crystallization and polymer chain alignment. In contrast, the 50:50 blend achieved a balance between tensile modulus and electroactive phase development, marking it a promising candidate for sensors and 3D printing applications. At higher P(VDF-TrFE) content, reduced crystallinity in PLA resulted in softer, more compliant films which would be suitable for flexible electronic applications. These results establish a pathway to tune mechanical and functional properties in semicrystalline polymer blends through facile compositional control.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

TCP/IP based Remote Firmware Upgradation for INO ICAL RPC-DAQ Modules

The INO ICAL (India-based Neutrino Observatory Iron Calorimeter) experiment is an upcoming mega-science project currently in the developmental stages. This initiative employs over 28,800 Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) based charged particle detectors used for tracking muon events. Each of these detectors incorporates an FPGA-based Digital Front End known as RPC-DAQ, with the primary objective of measuring the position and timing of particle interactions within the respective RPCs. The firmware embedded in the RPC-DAQ FPGA is designed to support this logic. The ICAL experiment is a 50-kiloton iron structure arranged in a stacked geometry where the RPCs along with their associated electronics are positioned between these iron plates. Reprogramming individual or groups of RPC-DAQs proves to be a challenging and time consuming task. To address the complexity of upgrading firmware for these typically inaccessible RPC-DAQs this paper introduces an innovative approach that utilizes the existing Ethernet interface, employed for command transmission and data acquisition to upload firmware. A customized handshaking architecture has been designed using the TCP protocol for this experiment. The firmware binary file is segmented into TCP packets and transmitted over Ethernet. The soft-core processor instantiated in the RPC-DAQ FPGA receives these firmware packets overwriting the existing firmware in the flash memory. Upon rebooting the RPC-DAQ configures the new firmware on the FPGA. The entire firmware upgrade process takes around 13 seconds to configure 10 RPC-DAQs. This paper explains the details of the architecture governing the firmware upgrade process and providing a comprehensive understanding of its mechanics.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2025

Test-Jig for production testing of RPC-DAQ modules in INO-ICAL Experiment

The INO-ICAL experiment consist of 28,800 RPCs each equipped with a Front-End FPGA-based Data Acquisition (RPC-DAQ) module for acquiring detector signals. Due to the large number of RPC-DAQs are required, an automated test system is essential. RPC-DAQ Test-Jig is an FPGA module designed to generate standard test inputs to the RPC-DAQ supporting complete functionality testing. The RPC-DAQ has multiple functions such as strip hit latching, count rate monitoring, pulse stretching, trigger generation, TDC data collection, and Ethernet communication. To effectively test each of these logics the Test-Jig uses various test patterns allowing users to verify and debug RPC-DAQ modules at a faster rate. When generating a predefined event with known data the Test-Jig architecture generates data pattern similar to that of the detector and also verifies the received data from the RPC-DAQ simultaneously. This testing methodology helps in understanding the functionalities of the RPC-DAQ logic at various conditions. The developed Test-Jig and along with its test methodologies reduces the debugging time of RPC-DAQs. This Paper discuss the architecture of the Test-Jig and some of its test methodologies in detail.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2025

NIOS II Soft-Core Processor and Ethernet Controller Solution for RPC-DAQ in INO ICAL

This paper introduces a high-performance Soft-Core Processor based data acquisition system designed for handling Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs). The DAQ consist of FPGA-based hardware equipped with Soft-Core Processor and embedded hardwired Ethernet controllers named RPC-DAQ, offering a versatile and fast network-enabled data acquisition solution. A soft processor, NIOS, is instantiated within an Intel Cyclone IV FPGA, overseeing control, communication, and data transfer with remote processing units. These integrated RPC-DAQ units, in substantial numbers, connect to a limited set of high-end processing units via LAN switches. This paper provides a detailed account of the software implementation scheme for the NIOS processor in the RPC-DAQ system. A remarkable 28,800 RPC-DAQ units will be deployed in proximity to the RPCs, serving the proposed INO-ICAL experiment in Theni-Madurai, Tamil Nadu. The network-enabled RPC-DAQ units controlled by the soft processor offloads FPGA tasks including event data acquisition, periodic health monitoring of RPCs, command interfaces, high voltage control, and data transfer to back-end data concentrators. Communication and data transfer are executed efficiently via TCP and UDP protocols over a 100 Mbps Ethernet interface. This system provides innovative solutions to improve data acquisition and control in large-scale scientific experiments.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2023

Magnetic field simulations and measurements on the mini-ICAL detector

The ICAL (Iron Calorimeter) is a 51 kTon magnetized detector proposed by the INO collaboration. It is designed to detect muons with energies in the 1-20 GeV range. A magnetic field of about 1.5 T in the ICAL detector will be generated by passing a DC current through suitable copper coils. This will enable it to distinguish between muons and anti-muons that will be generated from the interaction of atmospheric muon neutrinos and anti-neutrinos with iron. This will help in resolving the open question of mass ordering in the neutrino sector. Apart from charge identification, the magnetic field will be used to reconstruct the muon momentum (direction and magnitude). Therefore it is important to know the magnetic field in the detector as accurately as possible. We present here an (indirect) measurement of the magnetic field in the 85 ton prototype mini-ICAL detector working in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, for different coil currents. A detailed 3-D finite element simulation was done for the mini-ICAL geometry using Infolytica MagNet software and the magnetic field was computed for different coil currents. This paper presents, for the first time, a comparison of the magnetic field measured in the air gaps with the simulated magnetic field, to validate the simulation using real time data. Using the simulations the magnetic field inside the iron is estimated.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2023

Improving Time and Position Resolution of RPC detectors using Time Over Threshold Information

INO-ICAL is a proposed underground particle physics experiment to study the neutrino oscillation parameters by detecting neutrinos produced in the atmospheric air showers. Iron CALorimeter (ICAL) is to have 151 layers of iron stacked vertically, with active detector elements in between the iron layers. The iron layers will be magnetized to enable the measurement of momentum and charge of the $μ^-$ (or $μ^+$) produced by $ν_μ$ (or $\barν_μ$) interactions. Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) have been chosen as the active detector elements due to their large area coverage, uncompromised sensitivity, consistent performance for decades, as well as cost effectiveness. The major factors that decide the physics potential of the ICAL experiment are efficiency, position resolution and time resolution of the large area RPCs. A prototype detector called miniICAL (with 11 iron layers) was commissioned to understand the engineering challenges in building the large scale magnet and its ancillary systems, and also to study the performance of the RPC detectors and readout electronics developed by the INO collaboration. As part of the performance study of the RPC detectors, an attempt is made to improve the position and time resolution of them. Even a small improvement in the position and time resolution will help to improve the measurements of momentum and directionality of the neutrinos in ICAL. The Time-over-Threshold (ToT) of the RPC pulses (signals) is recorded by the readout electronics. ToT is a measure of the pulse width and consequently the amplitude. This information is used to improve the time and position resolution of the RPCs and consequently INO physics potential.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2023

Design, fabrication and large scale qualification of cosmic muon veto scintillator detectors

The INO collaboration is designing a cosmic muon veto detector (CMVD) to cover the mini-ICAL detector which is operational at the IICHEP transit campus, Madurai in South India. The aim of the CMVD is to study the feasibility of building an experiment to record rare events at a shallow depth of around 100 m, and use plastic scintillators to veto atmospheric muons from those produced by the rare interactions within the target mass of the detector. The efficiency of such a veto detector should be better than 99.99% and false positive rate of less than $10^{-5}$. The CMVD is being built using extruded plastic scintillator (EPS) strips to detect and tag atmospheric muons. More than 700 EPS strips are required to build the CMVD. Two EPS strips are pasted together to make a di-counter (DC) and wavelength shifting fibres are embedded inside the EPS strips to trap the scintillation light generated by a passing cosmic ray muon and transmit it as secondary photons to the Silicon Photo-Multipliers (SiPMs) mounted at the two ends of the DCs. Since the efficiency requirement of the veto detector is rather high, it is imperative to thoroughly test each and every component used for building the CMVD. A cosmic ray muon telescope has been setup using the DCs to qualify all the DCs that will be fabricated. In this paper we will discuss the details of the design and fabrication of the DCs, and the cosmic muon setup and the electronics used for their testing and the test results.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2022

Mass testing of SiPMs for the CMVD at IICHEP

A Cosmic Muon Veto Detector (CMVD) is being built around the mini-Iron Calorimeter (mini-ICAL) detector at the transit campus of the India based Neutrino Observatory, Madurai. The CMV detector will be made using extruded plastic scintillators with embedded wavelength shifting (WLS) fibres which propagate re-emitted photons of longer wavelengths to silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs). The SiPMs detect these scintillation photons, producing electronic signals. The design goal for the cosmic muon veto efficiency of the CMV is $>$99.99\% and fake veto rate less than 10$^{-5}$. A testing system was developed, using an LED driver, to measure the noise rate and gain of each SiPM, and thus determine its overvoltage ($V_{ov}$). This paper describes the test results and the analysed characteristics of about 3.5k SiPMs.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2022

Magnetic field measurements on the mini-ICAL detector using Hall probes

The magnetised 51 kton Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector proposed to be built at INO is designed with a focus on detecting 1-20 GeV muons. The magnetic field will enable the measurement of the momentum of the $μ^-$ and $μ^+$ generated from the charge current interactions of $ν_μ$ and $\barν_μ$ separately within iron in the detector, thus permitting the determination of the neutrino mass ordering/hierarchy, among other important goals of ICAL. Hence it is important to determine the magnetic field as accurately as possible. The mini-ICAL detector is an 85-ton prototype of ICAL, which is operational at Madurai in South India. We describe here the first measurement of the magnetic field in mini-ICAL using Hall sensor PCBs. A set-up developed to calibrate the Hall probe sensors using an electromagnet. The readout system has been designed using an Arduino Nano board for selection of channels of Hall probes mounted on the PCB and to convert the analog voltage to a digital output. The magnetic field has been measured in the small gaps (provided for the purpose) between iron plates in the top layer of mini-ICAL as well as in the air just outside the detector. A precision of better than 3% was obtained, with a sensitivity down to about 0.03 kGauss when measuring the small fringe fields outside the detector.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2022

Optimisation of Operating High Voltage of the large area Resistive Plate Chamber for ICAL experiment

The Resistive Plate Chamber is a widely used detector in high energy physics. The operating potential of this chamber is determined by the optimisation of the efficiency and noise rate of the device. This optimisation is based on the assumption that the performance of the device over the whole surface area is uniform. The INO-ICAL experiment is going to use $\sim$ 30000 RPC of size $\sim$2\,m$\times$2\,m. All the RPC will have to pass a minimum quality assurance criteria, but may not be able to maintain a good uniformity over the whole surface area, particularly for the whole running period of about twenty years. This paper describes the choice of the optimum operating HV for an RPC of non-uniform response.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2022

Qualification study of SiPMs on a large scale for the CMVD Experiment

A Cosmic Muon Veto (CMV) detector using extruded plastic scintillators is being designed around the mini-Iron Calorimeter (mini-ICAL) detector at the transit campus of the India based Neutrino Observatory, Madurai for the feasibility study of shallow depth underground experiments. The scintillation signals that are produced in the plastic due to muon trajectories are absorbed by wavelength shifting (WLS) fibres. The WLS fibres re-emit photons of longer wavelengths and propagate those to silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs). The SiPMs detect these photons, producing electronic signals. The CMV detector will use more than 700 scintillators to cover the mini-ICAL detector and will require around 3000 SiPMs. The design goal for the cosmic muon veto efficiency of the CMV is >99.99%. Hence, every SiPM used in the detector needs to be tested and characterised to satisfy the design goal of CMV. A mass testing system was developed for the measurement of gain and choice of the overvoltage ($V_{ov}$) of each SiPMs using an LED driver. The $V_{ov}$ is obtained by studying the noise rate, the gain of the SiPM. This paper describes the experimental setup used to test the SiPMs characteristics along with detailed studies of those characteristics as a function of temperature.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2021

Characterization of Silicon-Photomultipliers for a Cosmic Muon Veto detector

A Cosmic Muon Veto (CMV) detector using extruded scintillators is being designed around the mini-Iron Calorimeter detector at the transit campus of the India-based Neutrino Observatory at Madurai for measuring its efficiency at shallow depth underground experiments. The scintillation signal is transmitted through a Wavelength Shifting (WLS) fibre and readout by Hamamatsu Silicon-Photomultipliers (SiPMs). A Light Emitting Diode (LED) system is included on the front-end readout for in-situ calibration of the gain of each SiPM. A characterization system was developed for the measurement of gain and choice of the overvoltage (Vov) of SiPMs using LED as well as a cosmic muon telescope. The Vov is obtained by studying the noise rate, the gain of the SiPM, and the muon detection efficiency. In case of any malfunction of the LED system during the operation, the SiPM can also be calibrated with the noise data as well as using radioactive sources. This paper describes the basic characteristics of the SiPM and the comparison of the calibration results using all three methods, as well as the Vov of the SiPMs and muon selection criteria for the veto detector.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2020

Study of Particle Multiplicity of Cosmic Ray Events using 2m$\times$2m Resistive Plate Chamber Stack at IICHEP-Madurai

An experimental setup consisting of 12 layers of glass Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) of size 2\,m\,$\times$\,2\,m has been built at IICHEP-Madurai (\ang{9;56;14.5}\,N \ang{78;00;47.9}\,E, on the surface) to study the long term performance and stability of RPCs produced on large scale in Indian industry. This setup has been collecting data triggered by the passage of charged particles. The measurement of the multiplicity of charged particles due to cosmic ray interactions are presented here. Finally, the results are compared with different hadronic models of the CORSIKA simulation.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Measurement of azimuthal dependent muon flux by 2\,m\,$\times$\,2\,m RPC stack at IICHEP-Madurai

The proposed 50 \,kton\, INO-ICAL experiment is an upcoming underground high energy physics experiment planned to be commissioned at Bodi hills near Theni, India ($9^{\circ}57'N$, $77^{\circ}16'E$) to study various properties of neutrino oscillations using atmospheric neutrinos produced by extensive air shower phenomenon. The resistive plate chamber has been chosen as the active detector element for the proposed INO-ICAL. An experimental setup consisting a stack of 12 layers of glass resistive plate chambers each with a size of $\sim$2\,m$\times$2\,m has been built at IICHEP, Madurai to study the performance and long-term stability of the resistive plate chambers(RPCs) commercially produced in large quantities by the Indian industries as well as its electronics for the front-end and subsequent signal processing. In this study, the azimuthal dependence of muon flux at various zenith angles at Madurai (9$^{\circ}$56'N, 78$^{\circ}$00'E and at an altitude of 160\,m above mean sea level) has been presented along with the comparison of Monte Carlo from CORSIKA and HONDA predictions.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2019

Development and characterization of six-gap glass MRPCs and feasibility study of a PET device

The Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPCs) provide excellent timing as well as position resolutions at relatively low cost. Therefore, they can be used in medical imaging applications such as PET where precise timing is a crucial parameter of measurement. We have designed and fabricated several six-gap glass MRPCs and extensively studied their performance. In this paper, we describe the fabrication and characterization of the detector, the electronics and the data acquisition system of the setup. We present here the result of our Time Of Flight (TOF) experiment using a radioactive source Na-22 hence to demonstrate their potential applications in medical imaging. We also present the Geant4 based simulation results on the efficiency of our detector as a function of the number of gaps and thickness of the converter material.

physics.ins-det↗