Compact Data Acquisition System Research Articles

Compact FPGA-Based Data Acquisition System for a High-Channel, High-Count-Rate TOF-PET Insert for Brain PET/MRI

Compact FPGA-Based Data Acquisition System for a High-Channel, High-Count-Rate TOF-PET Insert for Brain PET/MRI

Calibration of a compact ASIC-based data acquisition system for neutron/[formula omitted] discrimination and spectroscopy with organic scintillators

Segmented neutron detectors that use silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are receiving significant attention in nuclear security applications. Some of these detectors employ hundreds of channels and would therefore benefit from the use of high-channel-density and low-cost-per-channel data acquisition (DAQ) systems. Candidate DAQ systems that meet these requirements exist, but few perform full waveform digitization, which permits neutron and gamma-ray interaction discrimination via pulse shape. In this work, we study the performance of the TOFPET2 (PETsys Electronics), an ASIC-based DAQ designed for positron emission tomography, which has been adapted to provide sensitivity to pulse shape by the use of variable-period charge integration. We use a light-emitting diode to calibrate a combination of an ON Semiconductor (SensL) 60035-64P J-Series SiPM and TOPFET2 DAQ and evaluate the linearity of their response and dynamic range. The calibration curve was obtained by comparing the DAQ response to that measured with a photodiode interfaced with a traditional waveform digitizer. This calibration process was used for rudimentary spectroscopy of various neutron and γ sources.

Gastric functional monitoring by gastric electrical impedance tomography (gEIT) suit with dual-step fuzzy clustering

Gastric Function has been successfully estimated by gastric electrical impedance tomography (gEIT) Suit with dual-step fuzzy clustering. The gEIT Suit which are made of elastic cloth with dual-planar electrodes and compact data acquisition (DAQ) system measures gastric impedance Z to visualize the gastric conductivity distribution σ. The dual-step fuzzy clustering extracts the clustered gastric conductivity distribution kσ, which accurately estimates the gastric function. The gEIT Suit with dual-step fuzzy clustering are applied to eight healthy persons during liquid meal consumption to estimate the gastric function under gastric accommodation phase of 200, 400 and 600 mL based on the gastric emptying phase. As the results, the gEIT Suit successfully estimate the gastric function. By the measured impedance Z, the subjects have a mean temporal impedance overline{Delta mathbf{Z} }= − 9.27 [Ohm] and p-value of that overline{mathbf{Z} }p(Z) = 0.0013[–]as the t-test result. In the case of gastric conductivity distribution σ, the subjects have a value of spatial mean conductivity distribution ⟨σ⟩ = 0.23[–] and p-value of that ⟨σ⟩ p(σ) = 0.0140[–]. Lastly, in the case gastric volume V, subjects have a gastric volume V = 12.44 [%] and p-value p(V) = 0.0664[–].

Real Time Flow Control System for Precise Gas Feed in COIL

This paper reports development of a real time flow control system for precise, controlled and uniform gas feed to a flowing medium Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL). The optimal operation of this prominent laser depends upon the desired supply of gas constituents such as nitrogen (N2), chlorine (Cl2) and iodine (I2) to achieve adequately mixed laser gas. The laser also demands real time variation of flow rates during gas constituent transitions in order to maintain stabilized pressures in critical subsystems. Diluent nitrogen utilized for singlet oxygen transport is termed as primary buffer gas and that for iodine transport is termed as secondary buffer gas (with main and bypass components). Also, nitrogen in precise flows is used for mirror blowing, nozzle curtain, cavity bleed and diffuser startup. A compact hybrid data acquisition system (Hybrid DAS) for precise flow control using LabVIEW 2014 platform has been developed. The supported flow ranges may vary from few mmole.s-1 to few hundred mmole.s-1. The estimated relative uncertainty in the largest gas component i.e. primary buffer gas feed is nearly 0.7%. The implementation of in-operation variation using flow ramp enables swift stabilization of singlet oxygen generator pressures critical for successful COIL operation. The performance of Hybrid DAS is at par with fully wired DAS providing the crucial benefit of remote field operation at distances of nearly 80m in line of sight and 35m with obstacles

Numerical investigation and experimental verification of thermal frequency of carbon nanotube-reinforced sandwich structure

The modal responses of multi-walled carbon nanotube-reinforced composite sandwich structural plate are computed under the elevated temperature environment using a higher-order polynomial kinematic model and the isoparametric finite element steps. The proposed model accuracy has been verified with experimental modal values under the influence of elevated temperature and ambient conditions. To perform the modal experiment the nanotube-reinforced composite sandwich panel filled with the epoxy core is fabricated. Further, the experimental elastic properties of epoxy, nanotube/epoxy composite and the sandwich are obtained individually for the current computational purpose. A tailor-made finite element computer code (MATLAB environment) is prepared using the multiscale mathematical formulation for the evaluation of thermal frequencies of the nanotube sandwich panel. The impact type vibration analyser has been utilized for the current testing purpose with the help of three components i.e. hardware (compact data acquisition system, cDAQ-9178), software (LAB-VIEW) and a microcontroller controlled thermal chamber (to maintain temperature profile). Finally, wide varieties of numerical examples are solved using the proposed computational model for the different design-related parameters. The intrinsic behaviour of each parameter on the epoxy-filled nanotube sandwich construction including the elevated temperature loading is discussed in details.

MFL-Based Local Damage Diagnosis and SVM-Based Damage Type Classification for Wire Rope NDE.

Wire ropes used in various applications such as elevators and cranes to safely carry heavy weights are vulnerable to breakage or cross-sectional loss caused by the external environment. Such damage can pose a serious risk to the safety of the entire structure because damage under tensile force rapidly expands due to concentration of stress. In this study, the magnetic flux leakage (MFL) method was applied to diagnose cuts, corrosion, and compression damage in wire ropes. Magnetic flux signals were measured by scanning damaged wire rope specimens using a multi-channel sensor head and a compact data acquisition system. A series of signal-processing procedures, including the Hilbert transform-based enveloping process, was applied to reduce noise and improve the resolution of signals. The possibility of diagnosing several types of damage was verified using enveloped magnetic flux signals. The characteristics of the MFL signals according to each damage type were then analyzed by comparing the extracted damage indices for each damage type. For automated damage type classification, a support vector machine (SVM)-based classifier was trained using the extracted damage indices. Finally, damage types were automatically classified as cutting and other damages using the trained SVM classifier.

Апаратно-програмна реалізація системи зборуданих для імпульсного спектрометра ЯКР

A hardware and software implementation of compact data acquisition system for pulsed nuclear quadrupole resonance spectrometer is proposed. The developed system is based on multi-protocol converter USB-245FIFO FT2232H, which provides data transfer speeds up to 480 Mb/s. For nuclear spin induction visualization and data signal processing using graphical tools of the object oriented programming a LabVIEW virtual instrument is synthesized. To synchronize data acquisition system with start of the exciting pulse the FPGA configuration structure is developed. The experimental results are showed possibility of the broadband nuclear quadrupole resonance spectrums imaging with frequency resolution 1.6 kHz, which confirms the high accuracy of the developed data acquisition system. Two-channel transmitter provides simultaneous operation of the two independent data channels in a single hardware USB interface. The use of the proposed data acquisition system for portable nuclear quadrupole resonance spectrometers will significantly reduce the cost of laboratory equipment for radio physical experimentation.

Sistema automatizado para coleta de dados de umidade relativa e temperatura do ar

Algumas variáveis climáticas, tais como a temperatura do ar (T) e a umidade relativa do ar (UR) exercem grande influência sobre a produção agrícola. Uma vez combinadas adequadamente, podem resultar em incrementos quantitativos e qualitativos do produto final, o que as tornam indispensáveis no monitoramento e manejo dentro do ambiente de produção. A aquisição de dados é uma importante ferramenta que pode auxiliar nesse processo, resultando em maior eficiência e uso racional dos recursos. Desse modo, o presente trabalho teve por objetivo o desenvolvimento de um sistema de aquisição de dados (SAD) compacto, na forma de um datalogger (de construção simples), para monitorar T e UR. Os dados provenientes dos sensores utilizados são gravados numa memória do tipo flash drive (USB removível), que é posteriormente conectada a um computador para interpretação dos dados via software. A fim de avaliar o desempenho do SAD, os dados registrados foram comparados com os dados de uma estação meteorológica convencional e de uma automatizada, apresentando valores de UR próximos em ambos os casos. Para T, a substituição do amplificador operacional é necessária. Dessa forma, o SAD desenvolvido apresenta-se viável inclusive para aplicações em campo.

Employing digital pulse processing electronics for the readout of a Si(Li)—Compton—polarimeter for the SPARC collaboration

The future x-ray spectroscopy and polarimetry experiment program of the SPARC collaboration at GSI and FAIR relies strongly on the availability of two-dimensional position-sensitive, energy- and time-dispersive thick semiconductor detector systems, including the appropriate signal processing electronics. To meet these demands, the development of a compact and scalable data acquisition system that has higher rate acceptance compared to commercial VME electronics by employing digital pulse processing electronics was started.

A High Speed and Compact Data Acquisition and Storage System

Data acquisition and record system plays an important role in signal processing. For the wideband signal acquisition and processing application, such as 3G/4G Base Stations, Wideband Microwave Backhaul, Military Communications, and RADAR, the need for high speed and smart software-defined radio (SDR) test platform is growing. In this paper, we implement a high compact form factor data acquisition and storage system used for the wideband signal application development. In order to implement high compact, low power and high speed real-time data storage, we use a PCIe-based switch architecture and leverage the Flash array as the storage part. The system supports RF sampling directly and offers a 16TB solid state storage module which could be read and write at the sustained speed of 12.8GB/s.

EndoTOFPET-US data acquisition system

The EndoTOFPET-US system is a multi-modal imaging system, combining Time of Flight PET (200 ps time resolution) and Ultra-Sound into an endoscopic probe. The PET component has an asymmetric configuration. The in-probe detector is based on 0.8 × 0.8 × 10 mm3 LYSO crystal fibers, read by a Geiger mode SIPM with digital output. The other detector is a 200 × 200 mm external plate, based on 3 × 3× 15 mm3 LYSO crystals, coupled to discrete 3 × 3 SiPMs read by a 64 channel ASIC. A compact data acquisition system based on digital reconfigurable electronics is proposed. FGPAs on the front end concentrate event data and transmit it to an external trigger. The probe electronics also transmit event data to the trigger. The trigger is a single PCIe card which sits directly in the acquisition computer. A preliminary event selection is performed directly in the trigger FPGA, while more sophisticated event processing is handled by software. The system is capable of handling rates up to 40 MHz from the external plate and 200 kHz from the probe.

The data acquisition and beam control system at the IMP microbeam facility

To perform routine irradiation and spatial analysis using ion microbeam, a compact data acquisition and beam control system was developed at the high energy heavy ion microbeam facility in the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP), CAS. The system comprises PXI modules from National Instruments. Together with the in-house developed Cell Exposure and Nuclear Application (CENA) software using LabVIEW, the system implements beam scanning, single ion targeting, ion counting, energy spectrum measurement, spectrum mapping and sample irradiation. This paper introduces the hardware configuration, software design and preliminary tests of the data acquisition and beam control system.

Portable gamma-ray tracking system for nuclear material safety

Using a CsI (Tl)-coupled PIN-type photodiode of 1 cm×1 cm and compact data acquisition system, a portable gamma monitoring system with lower cost has been fabricated and tested for gamma detection. After evaluating spectroscopy performance for gamma emission radioisotopes of Co-57 and Cs-137, we integrated the DAS with low-noise preamplifier, shaping amplifier, discriminator and multi-control unit (MCU) to acquire cumulative gamma detection data. The data are continuously sent to an observer, through a wireless telecommunication module of 400 MHz band, to monitor whether any gamma emitting material is out of sight or any accident takes place. A comparative study of gamma spectroscopy between our detector and a commercialized detector has been performed.

Gas gain uniformity tests performed on multiwire proportional chambers for the LHCb muon system

We present the experimental setup and the results of the gas gain uniformity tests performed as part of the quality control of the multiwire proportional chambers produced at CERN for the LHCb muon system. The test provides a relative gas gain measurement over the whole chamber sensitive area. It is based on the analysis of the pulse height spectrum obtained when the chamber is exposed to a 241Am radioactive source. Since the measurement is normalized to the peak of a precise pulse generator, the gain uniformity can also be evaluated among different gas gaps and different chambers. In order to cope with the specific requirements related to the relatively high number of chambers and to their varying geometry, a standalone and compact data acquisition system has been developed which is programmable at the hardware level and may be applied to many other applications requiring precise time-to-digital and analog-to-digital conversion, in correlated or non-correlated mode.

Mössbauer acquisition system for Rayleigh scattering experiments

A data acquisition system is reported with a number of improvements over similar systems currently used in Rayleigh scattering of Mössbauer radiation (RSMR) experiments. It is based on a data acquisition board including a Mössbauer function generator with adjustable frequency reference signal delivery, an internal single channel analyzer, and an internal 32 kB random access memory for data storage. The system performances were tested in RSMR measurements on pyrolytic graphite C (002) single crystal by using an iron enriched 57Fe (30 at. %) in rhodium matrix absorber. We want to demonstrate that the reported data acquisition system is suitable for the experimental separation of the elastic and inelastic components of the scattered radiation. The system can be used also in the ordinary Mössbauer measurements as a compact and rapid data acquisition system. In this case it presents the advantage of including also the function generator.

A compact data acquisition system for TOHR multidetectors: time encoding for both time and energy measurements

TOHR is a high-resolution nuclear tomography system dedicated to imaging small live animals. We describe a fast PC-based data acquisition system used to acquire, assess, and store TOHR data. The system can handle high event rates (200 K quadruple-coincidence events/s) from the 15 TOHR photodetectors. High-level system control is provided by a Labview program running on a PC, while a fast, flexible data acquisition protocol is micromanaged by a digital signal processor (DSP) board housed in a PC. Essential hardware components, including detector-mounted charge-to-time converters, a data-routing multiplexer (FPGA based), and fast time-to-digital converters (225-ps resolution), are described in detail. This data acquisition system could be used in physics experiments.

Focus on Data Acquisition

Focus on Data Acquisition

A real-time data-acquisition and analysis system with distributed UNIX workstations

A compact data-acquisition system using three RISC/UNIX™ workstations (SUN™/SPARCstation™) with real-time capabilities of monitoring and analysis has been developed for the study of photonuclear reactions with the large-acceptance spectrometer TAGX. One workstation acquires data from memory modules in the front-end electronics (CAMAC and TKO) with a maximum speed of 300 Kbytes/s, where data size times instantaneous rate is 1 Kbyte × 300 Hz. Another workstation, which has real-time capability for run monitoring, gets the data with a buffer manager called NOVA. The third workstation analyzes the data and reconstructs the event. In addition to a general hardware and software description, priority settings and run control by shell scripts are described. This system has recently been used successfully in a two month long experiment.

Compact standalone data acquisition system for submicrosecond time-resolved Fourier transform spectroscopy

We report the development of a data acquisition system which can be used with any commercial Michelson interferometer to carry out time-resolved Fourier transform spectroscopy with a time resolution of one microsecond. The sensitivity and spectral resolution of the experiment are limited only by the interferometer. The instrument occupies one slot on a conventional VME enclosure (6U height). It includes all hardware and firmware to control the experiment which generates the spectral transients and to collect the time-resolved interferograms. We are presently transferring this design to a single 6U height printed circuit board (with a mezzanine), in order to make it available as a standalone system for use with any VME platform.

Development of a data acquisition system using a RISC/UNIX TM workstation

We have developed a compact data acquisition system on RISC/UNIX workstations. A SUN TM SPARCstation TM IPC was used, in which an extension bus “SBus TM” was linked to a VMEbus. The transfer rate achieved was better than 7 Mbyte/s between the VMEbus and the SUN. A device driver for CAMAC was developed in order to realize an interruptive feature in UNIX. In addition, list processing has been incorporated in order to keep the high priority of the data handling process in UNIX. The successful developments of both device driver and list processing have made it possible to realize the good real-time feature on the RISC/UNIX system. Based on this architecture, a portable and versatile data taking system has been developed, which consists of a graphical user interface, I/O handler, user analysis process, process manager and a CAMAC device driver.