Electronics and Software for Quantum Astronomy Progress Report

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Electronics and Software for Quantum
AstronomyProgress Report
Quantum Astronomy Meeting in Bled

• 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
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Outline

• Overview
• Macro Blocks descriptins
• EquA Electronics for quantum Astronomy
• ATFU Asiago Time and Frequency Unit
• HARRISON prj
• QUAS Quantum Astronomy Software

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Overall Scheme
EQuA Electronics for Quantum Astronomy
ATFU AquEYE Time and Frequency Unit
Optics Telescope, Optical AquEYE and Detectors
Mass Storage
QuAS Quantum Astronomy Software
Scientific DATA
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Overview of the System
Max output rate 10 Mhz Typical rate 100
Khz SPAD precision 30 ps
TDC
0
PC Controller
SPAD 0
1
VME Optical Bridge
2
3
SPAD 3
DATA BUS
External ref. (input)
Oscillator OCXO TCXO RUBIDIUM
External Storage
10 Mhz clock (output)
GALILEO Receiver
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EquA Design
EQuA Electronics for Quantum Astronomy
Caen TDC Board
Backup Couters
PC Control Storage
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EQuA Electronics for Quantum Astronomy
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EquA Design
EQuA Electronics for Quantum Astronomy
Optical fiber connected to a PCI board in the PC

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

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EquA Data BandW Limitation
EQuA Electronics for Quantum Astronomy
Incoming PULSE/s
Readout Rate
EQuA Electronics for Quantum Astronomy
8 MHz But we are reaching 10 Mhz
60 Mbytes/s
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EquA OP MODES
EQuA Electronics for Quantum Astronomy

• 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

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EquA Aquisition Strategy and Performance
EQuA Electronics 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-1/4byte15MHz ? Upper limits of read-out data
  from FIFO buffer.
• On single channel (working with 4 channel) is
  15MHz/4 8 Mhz

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EquA User Options
EQuA Electronics 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

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EquA Output files
EQuA Electronics 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

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EquA Control and debugging information
EQuA Electronics 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

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ATFU AquEYE Time and Frequency Unit
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ATFU System
ATFU AquEYE Time and Frequency Unit
10 MHz Sinusoidal
10 MHz TTL
Sinusoidal to TTL converter built in Catania
FPGA 10 MHz to 40 MHz converter projected by
Massimiliano Belluso
SRS FS725 Rubidium Frequency Standard
V976
Regenerate the signal
40 MHz TTL
40 MHz TTL
40 MHz TTL
CAEN VME CRATE with V2718, V976 and V1290N
V1290N
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PPS to the TDC
ATFU AquEYE Time and Frequency Unit
OCXO
ATFU AquEYE Time and Frequency Unit
ATFU
40 MHz TTL
1 PPS TTL
1 PPS TTL
1 PPS NIM
Mini-T Trimble Disciplined OCXO
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ATFU Tests
ATFU AquEYE Time and Frequency Unit

• We tested several jitters/precision
• 10Mhz
• 40Mhz
• 1PPS
• 20Khz

At the moment 300ps for the overall system in
the 40 Mhz chain
We can IMPROVE!
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ATFU
ATFU AquEYE Time and Frequency Unit

• Paolo Zoccarato contribution

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ATFU HARRISON PRJ
ATFU AquEYE Time and Frequency Unit

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

2 GPS Antennas
10 Mhz 40 Mhz 20 Khz PPS signals NTP Signal on ETH
ACTS
POWER
INTERNET
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ACTS - AQUEYE I/O
ATFU AquEYE Time and Frequency Unit
ACTS
PPS
40MHz/ECL
20KHz/NIM
ETH/RS232
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ATFU HARRISON TODO
ATFU AquEYE Time and Frequency Unit

• 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????

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QuAS Quantum Astronomy Software
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QUAS
QuAS Quantum Astronomy Software

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

QuAS Quantum Astronomy Software
N(t) c(t) ? g2(t) PSD Hist of N(t) Hist of DIFFs
FILEs .TXT .DAT .FITS
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The first light of AquEYE
QuAS Quantum Astronomy Software
2 October 2007
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Other Results
QuAS Quantum Astronomy Software

• ZZ Pesci Long period (about 800 s)

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One important result
QuAS Quantum Astronomy Software

• The Crab Nebula Optical Pulsar

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QUAS examples small dt
QuAS Quantum Astronomy Software
G2(t)
Cross Correlation
PSD
Histogram of N(t)
Rate of each channel
PSD of each channel
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CRAB PPS compensation (working on)
First 50 s of the measurement
after about 1 our
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Questions?
View from the Ekar observatory in October
Tommaso Occhipinti