electronics and software for quantum astronomy progress report

Electronics and Software for Quantum Astronomy

Progress Report

Tommaso Occhipinti, Claudia Facchinetti, Andrea Dipaola, Paolo Zoccarato, Ivan Capraro, Sergio Billotta, Massimiliano Belluso, Giovanni Bonanno, Pietro Bolli, Filippo Messina, Cesare Barbieri, Sandro Centro

Bled, Slovenia, 26 March 2008

Quantum AstronomyMeeting in Bled

[email protected], Univ Padova 2

Outline

• Overview– Macro Blocks descriptins

• EquA: Electronics for quantum Astronomy

• ATFU: Asiago Time and Frequency Unit– HARRISON prj

• QUAS: Quantum Astronomy Software


Overall Scheme

EQuAElectronics for

Quantum Astronomy

ATFUAquEYE Time

and Frequency Unit

OpticsTelescope, Optical

AquEYE and Detectors

Mass Storage

QuASQuantum Astronomy Software

Scientific DATA


Overview of the System

SPAD 0

SPAD 3

TDC

OscillatorOCXO TCXORUBIDIUM

External ref. (input)

0

1

2

3PC ControllerVME

Optical Bridge

10 Mhz clock (output)

ExternalStorage

DATA BUS

GALILEOReceiver

Max output rate = 10 MhzTypical rate = 100 KhzSPAD precision = 30 ps

AquEYE Time & Frequency Unit (ATFU)


EquA Design EQuAElectronics for

Quantum Astronomy

CaenTDC

Board

PCControl

&Storage

BackupCouters


EQuAElectronics for

Quantum Astronomy


Optical fiber connected to a PCI board in the PC

• Dual Core• 2 SATA 250G• 1 Ex TERA USB2

EquA Design EQuAElectronics for

Quantum Astronomy


EquA: Data BandW Limitation EQuAElectronics for

Quantum Astronomy

EQuAElectronics for

Quantum Astronomy

Incoming PULSE/s Readout Rate

8 MHzBut we are reaching

10 Mhz

60 Mbytes/s


EquA: OP MODES

• Continuous Storage– From max count

rate to 100 KHz– The rollover can be

compensated by software

• Trigger Matching– From 100 KHz to

0– Infinite

measurement– The rollover of the

Triggers can be compansated by software

EQuAElectronics for

Quantum Astronomy


• Sw structure is multi-thread optimized to allow simultaneous read-out, statistics calculations and disk storage

• On the dual-core CPU, with careful priorities setup, one core takes care of read-out and the other of statistics and storage in real time

• A new firmware has been installed into TDC board: new performance – – VME: Readout rate: ~ 60Mbyte/s, each hit data is written in a

32bit line– the FIFO size is 32kx32bit: 60Mbyte s-1/4byte=15MHz → Upper

limits of read-out data from FIFO buffer. – On single channel (working with 4 channel) is 15MHz/4= ~8

Mhz

EquA: Aquisition Strategy and Performance

EQuAElectronics for

Quantum Astronomy


• The general approach is to simplify as much as possible astronomers work by masking the complexity of the system.– Options: acquisition mode, internal pulser, raw

data output format, exposure time - read only, object name, fix the output file size

• The command-line nature of the acquisition s/w allows the usage through telnet or SSH

EquA: User Options EQuAElectronics for

Quantum Astronomy


• The system supports two formats : raw data and FITS (binary table)

– The FITS format provides data using time relative to acquisition start and channel index for each hit.

– Raw data is a temporary format that allows system debugging

EquA: Output files EQuAElectronics for

Quantum Astronomy


• Software is controlled by TXT configuration files containing H/W working parameters

• S/W produces TXT LOG files that permanently report details, events and warning messages

• FITS header are user configurable by mean of ascii templates

EquA: Control and debugging information

EQuAElectronics for

Quantum Astronomy


ATFUAquEYE Time

and Frequency Unit


10 MHzSinusoidal

ATFU System

Sinusoidal to TTL converter built in Catania

10 MHzTTL

SRS FS725 Rubidium Frequency Standard

40 MHzTTL

FPGA 10 MHz to 40 MHz converter projected by Massimiliano Belluso

CAEN VME CRATE with V2718, V976 and V1290N

40 MHzTTL

40 MHzTTL

Regeneratethe signal

V976

V1290N

ATFUAquEYE Time

and Frequency Unit


1 PPSTTL

40 MHzTTL

PPS to the TDC

ATFU

Mini-T Trimble Disciplined OCXO

1 PPSTTL

1 PPSNIM

OCXO

ATFUAquEYE Time

and Frequency Unit

ATFUAquEYE Time

and Frequency Unit


ATFU Tests ATFUAquEYE Time

and Frequency Unit

We tested several jitters/precision:

1. 10Mhz2. 40Mhz3. 1PPS4. 20Khz

At the moment:300ps for the overall system in the 40 Mhz chain

We can IMPROVE!


ATFU

• Paolo Zoccarato contribution …

ATFUAquEYE Time

and Frequency Unit


ATFU: HARRISON PRJ

• Harrison prj will give us, both Padova and Ljubljana, TWO ACTS (Accurate and Certified Time System) units for all the month of OCTOBER 2008

ATFUAquEYE Time

and Frequency Unit

ACTSPOWER

INTERNET

2 GPS Antennas

10 Mhz40 Mhz20 KhzPPS signalsNTP Signal on ETH


ACTS - AQUEYE I/O

ACTS

40MHz/ECL

20KHz/NIM

ETH/RS232

PPS

ATFUAquEYE Time

and Frequency Unit


ATFU: HARRISON TODO

• In Padua and Ljubljana will arrive ACTS (Thales Alenia Space Italy, TASI) 3 days before the observations

• TASI people will need:– Power, External internet, accessibility to the roof for the

installation of the TWO antennas• They will take 1 day after the observation for the

ACTS removal

• We have to decide a SCHEDULE of observations• We have to decide the possible utilizations of

ACTS as it is a very accurate and stable machine.– Common measurements with NTP????

ATFUAquEYE Time

and Frequency Unit


QUAS

• A matlab compilation of scripts– …moving to C++ and QT libs for GI



FILEs:.TXT.DAT.FITS

N(t)c(t) g2(t)PSDHist of N(t)Hist of DIFFs…


The first light of AquEYE

2 October 2007



Other Results

• ZZ Pesci – Long period (about 800 s)



One important result

• The Crab Nebula Optical Pulsar



QUAS: examples small dt QuASQuantum Astronomy Software

G2(t) Cross Correlation PSD

Histogram of N(t) Rate of each channel PSD of each channel


CRAB PPS compensation (working on)

First 50 s of the measurement … after about 1 our


Questions?

View from the Ekar observatory in October

Tommaso Occhipinti

View from the Ekar observatory in October

Tommaso Occhipinti

electronics and software for quantum astronomy progress report

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