arXiv subjects

Qi An

Publications and source records attributed to Qi An.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Precise Clock Synchronization in the Readout Electronics of WCDA in LHAASO

The Water Cherenkov Detector Array (WCDA) is one of the key parts in the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). In the WCDA, 3600 Photomultiplier Tubes (PMTs) and the Front End Electronics (FEEs) are scattered within a 90000 m2 area, while a time measurement resolution better than 0.5 ns is required in the readout electronics. To achieve such time measurement precision, high quality clock distribution and synchronization among the 400 FEEs (each FEE for 9 PMTs readout) is required. To simplify the electronics system architecture, data, commands, and clock are transmitted simultaneously through fibers over a 400-meter distance between FEEs and the Clock and Data Transfer Modules (CDTMs). In this article, we propose a new method based on the White Rabbit (WR) to achieve completely automatic clock phase alignment between different FEEs. The original WR is enhanced to overcome the clock delay fluctuations due to ambient temperature variations. This paper presents the general scheme, the design of prototype electronics, and initial test results. These indicate that a clock synchronization precision better than 50 ps is achieved over 1 km fibers, which is well beyond the application requirement.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Bunch-by-bunch Beam Transverse Feedback Electronics Designed for SSRF

Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF), is one of the third-generation high-beam current (3.5 GeV) synchrotron light sources. In the storage ring of SSRF, multi-bunch instabilities would increase beam emittance and energy spread, which degrade beam quality and even cause beam loss. To address the above issues, a Transverse Feedback System is indispensable for SSRF, in which the key component is the bunch-by-bunch transverse feedback electronics. The whole feedback system consists of five main parts: Beam Position Monitor (BPM), RF front-end, signal processor, RF amplifier, and vertical/horizontal transverse kickers. The dissertation focuses on the signal processor we design, which is the main part of the feedback electronics. We conducted initial testing on the signal processor to evaluate its performance and function. Test results indicate that ENOB of the Analog-to-Digital Conversion circuit is better than 10 bit with 100 MHz input signal, and remains better than 9.5 bit up to 300 MHz, which is good enough for the required 7.9 bit; the frequency response of the whole system also concords well with the simulation results, and the suppression in amplitude response at the critical frequency points is better 35 dB while the uncertainty of phase response is better than 2 degree, all meeting the application requirement.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Prototype of a front-end readout ASIC designed for the Water Cherenkov Detector Array in LHAASO

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory is in the R&D phase, in which the Water Cherenkov Detector Array is an important part. The signals of Photo-Multiplier Tubes would vary from single photo electron to 4000 photo electrons, and both high precision charge and time measurement is required. To simplify the signal processing chain, the charge-to-time conversion method is employed. A prototype of the front-end readout ASIC is designed and fabricated in Chartered 0.35 μm CMOS technology, which integrates time disctrimination and converts the input charge information to pulse widths. With Time-to-Digital Converters, both time and charge can be digitized at the same time. We have conducted initial tests on this chip, and the results indicate that a time resolution better than 0.5 ns is achieved over the full dynamic range (1~ 4000 photo electrons, corresponding to 0.75 ~ 3000 pC with the threshold of 0.188 pC); the charge resolution is better than 1% with large input amplitudes (500 ~ 4000 photo electrons), and remains better than 15% with a 1 photo electron input amplitude, which is beyond the application requirement.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Research of time discrimination circuits for PMT signal readout over large dynamic range in LHAASO WCDA

In the readout electronics of the Water Cerenkov Detector Array (WCDA) in the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO), both high-resolution charge and time measurement are required over a dynamic range from 1 photoelectron (P.E.) to 4000 P.E. for the PMT signal readout. In this paper, we present our work on the design of time discrimination circuits in LHAASO WCDA, especially on improvement to reduce the circuit dead time. Several approaches were studied through analysis and simulations, and actual circuits were designed and tested in the laboratory to evaluate the performance. Test results indicate that a time resolution better than 500 ps RMS is achieved in the whole large dynamic range, and the circuit dead time is successfully reduced to less than 200 ns.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Data and clock transmission interface for the WCDA in LHAASO

The Water Cherenkov Detector Array (WCDA) is one of the major components of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). In the WCDA, 3600 Photomultiplier Tubes (PMTs) and the Front End Electronics (FEEs) are scattered over a 90000 m2 area, while high precision time measurements (0.5 ns RMS) are required in the readout electronics. To meet this requirement, the clock has to be distributed to the FEEs with high precision. Due to the "triggerless" architecture, high speed data transfer is required based on the TCP/IP protocol. To simplify the readout electronics architecture and be consistent with the whole LHAASO readout electronics, the White Rabbit (WR) switches are used to transfer clock, data, and commands via a single fiber of about 400 meters. In this paper, a prototype of data and clock transmission interface for LHAASO WCDA is developed. The performance tests are conducted and the results indicate that the clock synchronization precision of the data and clock transmission is better than 50 ps. The data transmission throughput can reach 400 Mbps for one FEE board and 180 Mbps for 4 FEE boards sharing one up link port in WR switch, which is better than the requirement of the LHAASO WCDA.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Prototype of a transient waveform recording ASIC

The paper presents the design and measurement results of a transient waveform recording ASIC based on the Switched Capacitor Array (SCA) architecture. This 0.18 μm CMOS prototype device contains two channels and each channel employs a SCA of 128 samples deep, a 12-bit Wilkinson ADC and a serial data readout. A series of tests have been conducted and the results indicate that: a full 1 V signal voltage range is available, the input analog bandwidth is approximately 450 MHz and the sampling speed is adjustable from 0.076 to 3.2 Gsps (Gigabit Samples Per Second). For precision waveform timing extraction, careful calibration of timing intervals between samples is conducted to improve the timing resolution of such chips, and the timing precision of this ASIC is proved to be better than 15 ps RMS.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Design and testing of a bunch-by-bunch beam position transverse feedback processor

Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) is a 3.5 GeV storage ring with a bunch rate of 499.654 MHz, harmonic number of 720, and circumference of 432 meters. SSRF injection works at 3.5 GeV, where the multi-bunch instabilities limit the maximum stored current. In order to suppress multi-bunch instabilities caused by transverse impedance, a bunch-by-bunch transverse feedback system is indispensable for SSRF. The key component of that system is the bunch-by-bunch transverse feedback electronics. An important task in the electronics is precise time synchronization. In this paper, a novel clock synchronization and precise delay adjustment method based on the PLLs and delay lines are proposed. Test results indicate that the ENOB (Effective Number Of Bits) of the analog-to-digital conversion circuit is better than 9 bits in the input signal frequency range from 100 kHz to 700 MHz, and the closed loop attenuation at the critical frequency points is better than 40 dB. The initial commissioning tests with the beam in SSRF are also conducted, and the results are consistent with the expectations.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

An overdetermined linear equations-based time calibration method for fast sampling ASICs

A novel time calibration method for waveform sampling application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) based on switched capacitor arrays (SCAs) is proposed in this paper. Precision timing extraction using SCA ASICs has been proved to be a promising technique in many high energy physics experiments. However, such ASICs suffer from irregular sampling intervals caused by process variations. Therefore, careful calibration is required to improve the time resolution of such systems. We evaluated the limitation of a popular method using the proportionality between voltage amplitude and sampling interval of adjacent switched-capacitor cells responding to either a sawtooth wave or a sine wave. The new time calibration method presented here utilizes the relationship between sampling intervals and the known input signal period to establish overdetermined linear equations, and the roots of these equations correspond to the actual sampling intervals. We applied this new method to a pulse timing test with an ASIC designed by our team, and the test results indicate that the new time calibration method is effective.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Design and performance of a TDC ASIC for the upgrade of the ATLAS Monitored Drift Tube detector

We present the prototype of a time-to-digital (TDC) ASIC for the upgrade of the ATLAS Monitored Drift Tube (MDT) detector for high-luminosity LHC operation. This ASIC is based on a previously submitted demonstrator ASIC designed for timing performance evaluation, and includes all features necessary for the various operation modes, as well as the migration to the TSMC 130 nm CMOS technology. We present the TDC design with the emphasis on added features and performance optimization. Tests of the timing performance demonstrate that this ASIC meets the design specifications. The TDC has a bin size of about 780 ps, and a timing bin variations within 40 ps for all 24 channels with leading and trailing edge digitization, while the power consumption has been limited to 250 mW, corresponding to a consumption of about 5.2 mW per edge measurement.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Capturing Nucleation at 4D Atomic Resolution

Nucleation plays a critical role in many physical and biological phenomena ranging from crystallization, melting and evaporation to the formation of clouds and the initiation of neurodegenerative diseases. However, nucleation is a challenging process to study in experiments especially in the early stage when several atoms/molecules start to form a new phase from its parent phase. Here, we advance atomic electron tomography to study early stage nucleation at 4D atomic resolution. Using FePt nanoparticles as a model system, we reveal that early stage nuclei are irregularly shaped, each has a core of one to few atoms with the maximum order parameter, and the order parameter gradient points from the core to the boundary of the nucleus. We capture the structure and dynamics of the same nuclei undergoing growth, fluctuation, dissolution, merging and/or division, which are regulated by the order parameter distribution and its gradient. These experimental observations differ from classical nucleation theory (CNT) and to explain them we propose the order parameter gradient (OPG) model. We show the OPG model generalizes CNT and energetically favours diffuse interfaces for small nuclei and sharp interfaces for large nuclei. We further corroborate this model using molecular dynamics simulations of heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation in liquid-solid phase transitions of Pt. We anticipate that the OPG model is applicable to different nucleation processes and our experimental method opens the door to study the structure and dynamics of materials with 4D atomic resolution.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Calibration and Status of the 3D Imaging Calorimeter of DAMPE for Cosmic Ray Physics on Orbit

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) developed in China was designed to search for evidence of dark matter particles by observing primary cosmic rays and gamma rays in the energy range from 5 GeV to 10 TeV. Since its launch in December 2015, a large quantity of data has been recorded. With the data set acquired during more than a year of operation in space, a precise time-dependent calibration for the energy measured by the BGO ECAL has been developed. In this report, the instrumentation and development of the BGO Electromagnetic Calorimeter (BGO ECAL) are briefly described. The calibration on orbit, including that of the pedestal, attenuation length, minimum ionizing particle peak, and dynode ratio, is discussed, and additional details about the calibration methods and performance in space are presented.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2018

Mismatch error correction for time interleaved analog-to-digital converter over a wide frequency range

High-speed high-resolution Analog-to-Digital Conversion is the key part for waveform digitization in physics experiments and many other domains. This paper presents a new fully digital correction of mismatch errors among the channels in Time Interleaved Analog-to-Digital Converter (TIADC) systems. We focus on correction with wide-band input signal, which means that we can correct the mismatch errors for any frequency point in a broad band with only one set of filter coefficients. Studies were also made to show how to apply the correction algorithm beyond the base band, i.e. other Nyquist zones in the under-sampling situation. Structure of the correction algorithm is presented in this paper, as well as simulation results. To evaluate the correction performance, we actually conducted a series of tests with two TIADC systems. The results indicate that the performance of both two TIADC systems can be greatly improved by correction, and the Effective Number Of Bits (ENOB) is successfully improved to be better than 9.5 bits and 5.5 bits for an input signal up to the bandwidth (-3dB) range in the 1.6-Gsps 14-bit and the 10-Gsps 8-bit TIADC systems, respectively. Tests were also conducted for input signal frequencies in the second Nyquist zone, which shows that the correction algorithms also work well as expected.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2018

Readout method based on PCIe over optical fiber for CBM-TOF super module quality evaluation

The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment will investigate the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) phase diagram at high net baryon densities and moderate temperatures. CBM Time of Flight (TOF) system is composed of super modules containing high performance Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPCs). During the mass production, each super module assembled with MRPCs needs quality evaluation, which includes time measurement and data readout. Read out electronics encounter the challenge of reading data from a super module at a speed of about 6 Gbps. In this paper, a read out method based on Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) over optical fiber is proposed for CBM-TOF super module quality evaluation. The digitized data from super module will be concentrated at the front-end electronics, and then be transmitted to a PCIe switch module (PSM) over optical fiber using PCIe protocol. The PSM is directly plugged into the motherboard via gold fingers at the backend data acquisition server. With this readout method, a high-speed transmission rate can be reached. Furthermore, a PSM can receives data from several super modules simultaneously, which is important to improve the evaluation efficiency. This readout method simplifies the architecture of readout electronics and supports long distance transmission between frontend and backend.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

Data Acquisition Software for CBM-TOF super module quality control

The time-of-flight (TOF) system in the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment is composed of super modules based on multi-gap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPC) for high-denseness, high-resolution time measurement. In order to evaluate the quality of detectors during the mass production, a distributed data readout system is developed to meet with the high data rate of 6.4Gbps, and a related data acquisition (DAQ) software is implemented under Linux operating system to test and verify the feasibility of the distributed data readout method. In this paper, the DAQ software is focused on data collection, event building, status monitoring and system controlling. Laboratory tests confirmed the function of the DAQ software and show that the overall data transfer rate of a single data transmission path can reach up to about 550Mbps which already meet the demand.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

Design of a Programmable Gain Waveform Digitization Instrument for Detector Calibration

To test and calibrate various detectors in nuclear and high energy physics experiments, a general purposed calibration instrument has been developed. All information including timing, amplitude and charge of signals can be directly obtained to calibrate detector with this instrument by amplifying and digitizing the signal waveform. The system consists of two parts, a large dynamic range pre-amplifier module and a high speed and high-resolution digitization module. The pre-amplifier module based on programmable gain amplifier and attenuator achieves gain from -26.2 dB to 24.4 dB, making it suitable to adapt to different detectors. Taking advantage of high speed and high-resolution analog-to-digit converter (ADC), the waveform digitization module samples the signal after conditioning with 12 bits resolution and up to 3.6 giga hertz samples per second (GSPS). To evaluate the feature of this instrument, an electronics testbench platform was installed and test results showed a bandwidth from direct current (DC) to 450 MHz and the effective number of bits (ENOB) is above 7 bits in high gain set and 5.8 bits in low gain set in the bandwidth range, which indicated that it had broad application prospect in detector calibration.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

A Design of FPGA Based Small Animal PET Real Time Digital Signal Processing and Correction Logic

Small animal Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is dedicated to small animal imaging. Animals used in experiments, such as rats and monkeys, are often much smaller than human bodies, which requires higher position and energy precision of the PET imaging system. Besides, Flexibility, high efficiency are also the major demands of a practical PET system. These requires a high-quality analog front-end and a digital signal processing logic with high efficiency and compatibility of multiple data processing modes. The digital signal processing logic of the small animal PET system presented in this paper implements 32-channel signal processing in a single Xilinx Artix-7 family of Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The logic is designed to support three online modes which are regular package mode, flood map and energy spectrum histogram. Several functions are integrated, including two-dimensional (2D) raw position calculation, crystal identification, events filtering, etc. Besides, a series of online corrections are also integrated, such as photon peak correction to 511 keV and timing offset correction with crystal granularity. A Gigabit Ethernet interface is utilized for data transfer, Look-Up Tables (LUTs) configuration and commands issuing. The pipe-line logic processes the signals at 125 MHz with a rate of 1,000,000 events/s. A series of initial tests are conducted. The results indicate that the digital processing logic achieves the expectations.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2018

A New All-Digital Background Calibration Technique for Time-Interleaved ADC Using First Order Approximation FIR Filters

This paper describes a new all-digital technique for calibration of the mismatches in time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters (TIADCs) to reduce the circuit area. The proposed technique gives the first order approximation of the gain mismatches and sample-time mismatches, and employs first order approximation FIR filter banks to calibrate the sampled signal, which do not need large number of FIR taps. In the case of a two-channel 12-bit TIADC, the proposed technique improves SINAD of simulated data from 45dB to 69dB, and improves SINAD of measured data from 47dB to 53dB, while the number of FIR taps is only 30. In the case of slight mismatches, 24-bit FIR coefficient is sufficient to correct 12-bit signals, which makes it easy to implement this technique in hardware. In addition, this technique is not limited by the number of sub-ADC channels and can be calculated in parallel in hardware, these features enable this technique to be versatile and capable of real-time calibration.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2018

Testing of Front-End Readout Prototype ASICs Designed for WCDA in LHAASO

The water Cherenkov detector array (WCDA) is one of the key detectors in the large high altitude air shower observatory (LHAASO), which is proposed for very high gamma ray source survey. In WCDA, there are more than 3000 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) scattered under water in an area of 80000 m2. As for the WCDA readout electronics, both high precision time and charge measurement is required over a large dynamic range from 1 photon electron (P.E.) to 4000 P.E. To reduce the electronics complexity and improve the system reliability, a readout scheme based on application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) is proposed. Two prototype ASICs were designed and tested. The first ASIC integrates amplification and shaping circuits for charge measurement and discrimination circuits used for time measurement. The shaped signal is further fed to the second ADC ASIC, while the output signal from the discriminator is digitized by the FPGA-based time-to-digital converter (TDC). Test results indicate that time resolution is better than 250 ps RMS, and the charge resolution is better than 10% at 1 P.E., and 1% at 4000 P.E. which meets the requirements of the LHAASO WCDA.

physics.ins-det↗