Over the years there has been a growing interest for Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) multi-channel systems for analyzing information carried by light signals, both in scientific and industrial areas. Those systems can feature high temporal precision along with single photon sensitivity, but modern ones still suffer for a strong trade-off between number of channels and performance. This thesis work is part of a project aiming to break this trade-off by developing a complete TCSPC acquisition system featuring both high number of channels and high performance. The system is designed to manage a 32x32 SPAD sensor array and integrates 5 fast acquisition chains based on a new time-to-amplitude converter architecture(F-TAC) which features a conversion frequency of 80MHz, by parallelizing 16 individual time-to-amplitude converters. The signals from the detectors are routed to two acquisition boards containing 3 and 2 acquisition chains respectively, which are based on the TAC-ADC architecture, allowing a timing accuracy of less than 20 ps. The data are processed and sent to the communication board which transmits the information to the computer through USB 3.0 and Ethernet 10G protocols. These communication protocols have been selected because, being fully affirmed on the market, they make possible to create a versatile and easy-to-use system. This thesis work is focused on the debugging of the two boards containing the acquisition chains and the communication board, by developing the firmware necessary to test the different electronics devices inside them and the functionality of the boards. In particular, the deserialization of the ADC output data from the acquisition chains has been successfully tested, as well as the data transfer between the two acquisition boards and the communication one at the maximum throughput of 10 Gbit /s. Finally, the information transfer from the communication board to the computer through Ethernet 10G and USB 3.0 protocols has been verified.
Nel corso degli anni si è assistito al crescente interesse, in ambiti sia scientifici che industriali, verso i sistemi multicanale Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) per l’analisi di informazioni trasmesse da segnali luminosi. Essi consentono di ottenere elevate risoluzioni temporali, tuttavia nei moderni sistemi è ancora presente un forte trade-off tra il numero di canali utilizzati e le prestazioni. Questo lavoro di tesi si inserisce nel progetto di un sistema di acquisizione completo ad elevato numero di canali per applicazioni TCSPC, che punta ad abbattere questo trade-off. Il sistema è pensato per la gestione di una matrice di 32x32 SPAD ed integra 5 catene di acquisizione veloci basate su una nuova architettura di convertitore tempo-ampiezza (F-TAC). Quest’ultima permette di raggiungere una frequenza di conversione di 80MHz, parallelizzando 16 convertitori tempo-ampiezza singoli. I segnali provenienti dai rivelatori vengono instradati verso due schede di acquisizione contenenti rispettivamente 3 e 2 catene. Queste ultime sono basate sull’architettura TAC-ADC e consentono di ottenere una precisione temporale inferiore a 20 ps. Le informazioni vengono elaborate e inviate alla scheda di comunicazione, la quale trasmette i dati al PC attraverso i protocolli USB 3.0 ed Ethernet 10G. Questi ultimi sono stati selezionati in quanto, essendo pienamente affermati in ambito commerciale, consentono di realizzare un sistema versatile ed allo stesso tempo semplice da utilizzare per l’utente. In questo lavoro di tesi si è effettuato il debug delle due schede di acquisizione e della scheda di comunicazione che compongono il sistema TCSPC, sviluppando i firmware necessari per testare i diversi componenti e le funzionalità delle due schede. In particolar modo, è stata realizzata con successo la deserializzazione dei dati in uscita dagli ADC della catena di acquisizione, la trasmissione dei dati tra le due schede di acquisizione e la scheda di comunicazione al throughput massimo di 10 Gbit/s e l’invio dei dati dalla scheda di comunicazione al PC attraverso i protocolli Ethernet 10G ed USB 3.0.
Test e debug di un sistema per applicazioni TCSPC ad elevate prestazioni costituito da 5 canali di acquisizione e scheda di trasferimento dati a 10GBIT/S
TROGU, MARTINA
2016/2017
Abstract
Over the years there has been a growing interest for Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) multi-channel systems for analyzing information carried by light signals, both in scientific and industrial areas. Those systems can feature high temporal precision along with single photon sensitivity, but modern ones still suffer for a strong trade-off between number of channels and performance. This thesis work is part of a project aiming to break this trade-off by developing a complete TCSPC acquisition system featuring both high number of channels and high performance. The system is designed to manage a 32x32 SPAD sensor array and integrates 5 fast acquisition chains based on a new time-to-amplitude converter architecture(F-TAC) which features a conversion frequency of 80MHz, by parallelizing 16 individual time-to-amplitude converters. The signals from the detectors are routed to two acquisition boards containing 3 and 2 acquisition chains respectively, which are based on the TAC-ADC architecture, allowing a timing accuracy of less than 20 ps. The data are processed and sent to the communication board which transmits the information to the computer through USB 3.0 and Ethernet 10G protocols. These communication protocols have been selected because, being fully affirmed on the market, they make possible to create a versatile and easy-to-use system. This thesis work is focused on the debugging of the two boards containing the acquisition chains and the communication board, by developing the firmware necessary to test the different electronics devices inside them and the functionality of the boards. In particular, the deserialization of the ADC output data from the acquisition chains has been successfully tested, as well as the data transfer between the two acquisition boards and the communication one at the maximum throughput of 10 Gbit /s. Finally, the information transfer from the communication board to the computer through Ethernet 10G and USB 3.0 protocols has been verified.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/135928