Home

User manual for FPGA laser lock

1. 33 35 Assigning configuration file 34 36 Memory configuration dialog box 35 37 Uploading configuration to the FPGA I 35 38 Dispersion curve shape 38 39 Oscilloscope display 40 AY Leste SCC RE 3 909 092809 See Sw 42 41 Power spectral density of locked laser error signal 44 42 Control switches 45 43 Example of an underflow error signal 49 44 Signals in the lock in amplifier unit 50 45 Default LCD display 51 List of Tables PM 12 eee eee dae heuer ds 14 tk ne nh ee oe es 19 TEITE 46 eee a Aa 48 A 48 1 Overview 1 1 Introduction This system the AS 1 is a laser servo control system built from an off the shelf field programmable gate array FPGA demo board made by Digilent the Spartan 3AN700 FPGA The FPGA demo board and kit accessories can be purchased from Digi Key an online electronics component vendor The board has two channels of analog input four channels of analog output and a number of extension connectors for plug ins For the laser servo control system we implement a lock in amplifier and two proportional integral PI servo control channels one fast and one slow called diode current and piezo voltage respectively based on their anticipated use In
2. 14 Mode switches and their functions Switch Setting Up SWO Down Up J18 lt 0 gt Down Up Function or Mode Ramp disabled The slow servo piezo voltage channel is connected to its output normally and its low pass filter frequency determined normally by the setting in the menu Selects the modulation waveform ana log sine or digital square wave Modulation waveform in sinusoidal mode A sinusoidal modulation waveform is sent to the modulation drive output and a phase shifted version is sent to the lock in for demodulation of the in put signal Modulation output in square wave mode A square wave modulation waveform is sent to a digital output line and a phase shifted version is sent to the lock in for demodulation of the input signal The digital square wave modulation sig nal and the phase shifted digital modu lation signal can be monitored in this mode at J19 lt 3 gt and J19 lt 2 gt Switches between lock in modes active or bypass Lock in active This is the normal mode of operation where the input signal is demodulated in the lock in amplifier Lock in bypassed In bypass mode the lock in amplifier is disabled so that signal from the input can be used directly by the servo chan nels as an error signal Note that the lock in low pass filter is still effective however In this mode the following parameters are automatically set Input reference voltage 1 65 V Modulation frequency
3. The LCD display and rotary knobs can only be accessed with the lid open or if additional holes are punched or milled in the top cover of the box 8 Appendix 8 1 Quick reference This section provides a selection of reference information reprinted from else where in the manual or in the companion paper 8 1 1 Switch configurations As shown in figure 42 there are four slide switches on the right side of the LCD display four push button switches and a rotary knob push button switch Table 4 provides a reference for the function of selected mode switches the complete set of mode switch functions is given in table 2 Rotary Push Button Switch Name Position Up Down SWO S Sine Dith EET Reset Low pass Filters SWI RAMP On Off SW2 Current Off On Go ey a 4 A P Go To The Next SW3 Monitor 1 Mixed Error E enne TS Menu Item Monitor_2 lt Hi pass Errx8 Mode Switthes aly 3 DTN WEST BTM_EAST 116 xS af p 4 LE E r 11 i M e us J Es os Dons Display Reset S E ue d VO334_c2_ 12 083407 Figure 42 Control switches 45 Table 4 Reprint of table 2 Mode switches and functionalities Switch SW3 S W2 SW1 Setting Down Up Down Up Down Function or Mode Selects the monitor output signal func tion Monitor 1 always provides a TTL trigger synchronized with the ramp Monitor 2 Error signal or demo
4. The system generates two channels of proportional integral PI servo control with variable low pass cut off frequencies and gains A high pass filter is im plemented in the fast servo control diode current channel to allow any low frequency feedback to be provided solely by the slow servo control piezo voltage channel which is expected to have a much larger tuning range than the fast servo control channel eee eee ee a Error Signal 8 Piezo Drive Piezo Gain Piezo Low pass V Filter ys PI Slow X Ie f Diode Current ios urrent Low pass High pass Gain Filter Figure 6 Piezo and diode current servo channels ne e a ne ee ee CL PI Fast Current Drive The Bode plot of the complete system is shown in figure 7 Log Gain Slow servo Fast servo Log Frequency Fast servo high pass cutoff frequency Fast servo low pass cutoff frequency Slow servo low pass cutoff frequency Figure 7 Bode plot of servo loops 1 2 3 Ramp mode The ramp feature is intended to allow the user to scan a laser for a spectral feature such as a resonant transmission peak of a Fabry Perot cavity When the ramp is on the slow servo control piezo voltage signal is disconnected from its output channel and instead a symmetric triangle wave is output to this output Both the slow and fast servos are effectively disabled in ramp mode their low pass filters are se
5. north button This will unlock the laser since the slow servo channel will have already accumulated some level of offset and resetting all the filters will reference zero the slow servo channel output Relock the laser by tuning to a close by Fabry Perot transmission line To do this slightly change the central frequency of the laser using e g the piezo offset on the laser s controller Set the fast servo diode current low pass filter cutoff frequency to above that of the lock in amplifier low pass filter Check that you are still locked with the slow servo piezo voltage channel This can be verified by seeing oscillations of the error signal if the slow servo piezo voltage gain is slightly increased If not repeat the slow servo piezo voltage locking procedure and then return to step 1 of this procedure In general increasing the gain should result in a tighter lock However at some point further increase will result in excessive feedback and cause auto oscillation Therefore the gain limit is reached when such auto oscillation occurs Begin turning up the fast servo diode current gain until the system becomes unstable and starts to oscillate One can try to decrease the slow servo piezo voltage gain or increase the fast servo diode current high pass filter cutoff frequency to prevent the fast servo and the slow servo channels from fighting against each other However if further increase of the high pass fil
6. 107 Fast and Slow Servo Locks Afrms 134kHz 107 1075 1076 1077 1078 107 10710 Power Spectral Density V Hz 10711 1 10 10 10 104 105 Noise Frequency Hz Figure 41 Power spectral density of locked laser error signal in V Hz 7 Materials This section lists the parts and assembly needed to make the system operational e FPGA Demo Board Spartan 3AN Starter Kit http search digikey com scripts DkSearch dksus d11 7Cat 2621773 amp k fpga 20spartan 203AN e FX2 Module Interface Board MIB http www digilentinc com Products Detail cfm NavPath 2 648 613 amp Prod FX2MIB e PmodR2R Resistor Ladder DAC http www digilentinc com Products Detail cfm NavPath 2 401 615 amp Prod PMOD R2R e Offset Amplifier Stanford Research Systems SR560 amplifier A home built amplifier could also be constructed to provide a 400 mV offset to the input signals http thinksrs com products SR560 htm 44 e BNC connectors with isolated ground 5 8 needed com jsp displayProduct jsp sku 93F7577 amp CMP KNC G10000692 amp HBX_ QU 50 amp HBX_PK AMPHENOL 31 10 RFX e Box Hammond 1444 22 or a suitable alternative http www newark com hammond 1444 22 1444 series chassis dp 95F2614 7 1 Making the box Punch or drill 3 8 diameter holes on the front surface of the box to mount the BNC connectors Connect the BNC connectors with the leads of the FPGA laser control system as shown in figure 17
7. 2 phase relative to the modulated signal The sign will need to be experimentally determined Add or subtract 7 2 from this phase value and set the phase offset on the LCD to the resulting value This is where you should see the maximum amplitude in the error signal To find the best modulation amplitude start with a modulation amplitude of 0 Increasing the amplitude will result in a wider dispersion signal with less and less center slope Since this is before you have set the low pass filter in the lock in you may see modulation residuals in the waveform Further increase will result in the zero crossing dispersion signals sepa rating into two inverted peaks Decrease the modulation amplitude to prevent this separation This will provide the best performance of the lock To set the lock in amplifier low pass filter cutoff frequency begin with the cutoff frequency the same as the modulation frequency You should still see strong oscillations in the error signal at the modulation frequency as you ramp through a spectral line Now turn down the cutoff frequency until you see no obvious residual wiggles in the error signal at the modulation frequency To more carefully set the modulation amplitude again start from a mod ulation amplitude of 0 Initially increase of the modulation amplitude increases the amplitude of the dispersion like signal Stop increasing the modulation amplitude when further increase decreases the slope of the
8. The Linear Technology LTC2624 DAC The LTC2624 DAC used on the Digilent board is a rail to rail voltage DAC with an effective output impedance of 160 2 More correctly it can drive loads larger than 160 Q reliably 29 A few design properties of this DAC limit the performance of the system The sampling rate of the DAC is 1 5 MS s This gives a Nyquist frequency of 750 kHz however the usable output bandwidth is further limited by the modest slew rate of 1 V us which effectively cuts off the high frequency components in the reconstruction of an output waveform of reasonable magnitude In addition the LTC2624 DAC also has a moderate glitch noise a noise that appears when the DAC switches between output values The amplitude of this transient is on the scale of 20 mV at midrange 1 65 V Midscale Glitch Impulse ry VouT 10mV DIV 12nV s TYP CS LD 1 5V DIV m 2604 G10 2 5ys DIV Figure 22 Output glitch noise of the LTC2624 from data sheet The four analog outputs on this DAC share a total bandwidth of 1 5 MS s which is allocated taking into account how fast the signal of each channel is expected to change as described in table The dynamic bandwidth alloca tion algorithm allows on the fly changes to the allocation ratio There are two configurations In configuration 1 the analog modulation output is allocated a sampling bandwidth of 1 02 MS s compared with 450 kS s for the fast servo control d
9. and install the software After installation locate the Xilinx iMPACT application on your com puter peearan E Xilinx iMPACT 11 re Skype Figure 26 Icon for Xilinx iMPACT application Now check all the jumpers on the FPGA demo board Details can be found in the FPGA user guide Briefly one should check the status of the following jumpers shown in figure 27 boot mode select jumper bottom left of the figure reset select J18 upper right SPI programming jumper upper right and power supply and memory jumper bottom right 28 Rm s Cp XILINX certe FPGA DEVICE cies SPARTAN 3A CSRS SSS SPARTAN 3AN BOOT MODE SELECT 2 J e E NA e me k 1 14 e Mi I M2 5 ISF AVAILAbLE ur SPARTAN 3AN ONLY Figure 27 Jumper locations 4 Now connect the 5 V DC power supply to the power jack on the demo board J4 5 Connect the FPGA to your PC using the USB cable J7 The green LED on the side of the USB socket J7 should flash a couple of times When it stops blinking and is constantly on it means the PC is ready to communicate with the board using the USB interface Figure 28 USB status LED 6 Now open up iMPACT if you havent done so If this is your first time running iMPACT it will prompt you to create a new project Click Yes 29 pu CES A a AV CU M AR File Edit View Gal Boundary Scan BS SlaveSerial Ba Direct SPI E Syst
10. choose the design file you downloaded from us con troller bit Click Open GB ISE IMPACT CAXilinx 11 1 auto_project ipf a Boundary Scan Organize New folder EE Desktop de Downloads 3l Recent Places Libraries Documents Mame d _ngo di xmsgs di 20090630 Me Signed Input A xdb di sst kl controller bit Date modified 2009 7 1 4 55 2009 7 1 4 58 2009 7 1 4 55 2009 6 30 21 43 2009 7 1 4 58 Type BIT File Size 353 KB Date modified 2009 7 1 4 58 al Music i Pictures BE Videos 2 Homegroup na Computer File name MA Figure 35 Assigning configuration file controller bit 12 A new window should pop up This is for the memory Choose Bypass 34 undary Scan aveSerial tf ce rect SPI stemACE TDI f y eate PROM File PR i em OM xc3s700an xcf04s controller bit bypass Assign New Configuration File Of i de C Users Buffer Lab Documents My Dropbox Projects Project 20100210 PII o o o E E A My Computer y ngo a xmsgs i Buffer Lab 4 Project 20100210 PID Servo Controller xdb 4 remote sources Files of type AI Design Fies mcs exo isc bed _ Figure 36 Memory configuration dialog box choose Bypass 13 Now you can upload the configuration to the FPGA Right click on the device and choose Program Flash and Load FPGA in the drop down menu Output
11. speed analog monitor signals are output via Digilent Pmod resistor ladder DACs attached to the FX2 Module Interface Board MIB expansion card These Pmod DACs have an output range from 0 to 3 3 V with a rated bandwidth of 25 MHz and 8 bit resolution In our system these DAC data lines are updated at 50 MHz The resistor ladder DACs used in this system have an 10 output impedance of gt 10 kQ Therefore short cable length is advised while using these monitor outputs to avoid attenuation of high frequency signals due to large cable capacitances and buffer amplification is required to use these outputs with low impedance loads In practice we have frequently monitored these channels with oscilloscope probes The names and functions of these inputs and outputs are described in table All the output signals are treated as bipolar signals centered at 1 65 V On the other hand the input may be treated as a unipolar signal with reference zero at 0 4 V or a bipolar signal with reference zero at 1 65 V In both cases the input signal must remain within the range from 0 4 V to 2 9 V An offset amplifier is used to lift the input signal by 0 4 V in our test setup 11 Table 1 Inputs and outputs Port Name Function Signal properties Input 0 4 2 9 V 14 bits 10 kQ ADC A System input Input signal e g from 1 5 MS s a photodiode following a Fabry Perot cavity ADC B N A Not used 1 5 MS s Analog output 0 3 3 V 12 bits 160 2 L
12. the fast servo diode current output In our setup with a laser locked using both the fast and slow servos we estimate a short term laser linewidth of 190 kHz based on the error signal The power spectral density plot is given at the end of this section 6 2 Procedure for estimating laser linewidth We assume the servo parameters are tuned and the laser locked following the procedures in section 5 The linewidth of the laser is estimated by following the procedure below The goal is to determine the constant of proportionality between the ampli tude of the error signal and the frequency shift of the laser Then by reading out the noise spectrum of the error signal from a spectrum analyzer we can determine the root mean squared RMS frequency noise of the laser within a particular frequency band 6 2 1 Procedure 1 Throughout this procedure the following parameters have to be fixed in order to preserve the measured proportionality constant e Modulation amplitude e Lock in amplifier gain e Lock in amplifier low pass filter cutoff frequency Intensity of the Fabry Perot resonant transmission peak which en tails e g fixing the laser intensity and the gain setting of the Fabry Perot photodiode In order to keep these parameters fixed we recommend first locking the laser then maintaining these parameters during the rest of the procedure when the laser will again be unlocked for several steps 2 Turn on the ramp t
13. wave Down Modulation waveform in sinusoidal mode A sinusoidal modulation waveform is sent to the modulation drive output and a phase shifted version is sent to the lock in for demodulation of the in put signal Up Modulation output in square wave mode A square wave modulation waveform is sent to a digital output line and a phase shifted version is sent to the lock in for demodulation of the input signal The digital square wave modulation sig nal and the phase shifted digital modu lation signal can be monitored in this mode at J19 lt 3 gt and J19 lt 2 gt 8 1 2 Input and output ranges Input and output ranges are given in table 5 For additional information see section 1 3 47 Table 5 Input and output specifications Name of signal Range Reference zero Bit depth Sampling rate Impedance System input signal 0 4 2 9 V 0 4 V or 1 65 V 14 bits 1 5 MS s 10 kQ Analog modulation output 0 3 3 V 1 65 V 12 bits 1 02 MS s 160 2 in configuration 1 Analog modulation output 0 3 3 V 1 65 V 8 bits 50 MS s gt 10 kQ in configuration 2 Digital modulation output 0 or 3 3 V 1 65 V 1 bit 50 MS s 100 Q Slow servo piezo voltage 0 3 3 V 1 65 V 12 bits 30 kS s 160 Q output Fast servo diode current 0 3 3 V 1 65 V 12 bits 100 kS s 160 2 output in config 1 Fast servo diode current 0 3 3 V 1 65 V 12 bits 1 47 MS s 160 2 output in config 2 Monitor 1 output 0 3 3 V 1 65 V 8 bits 50 MS s gt 10 k
14. 0 15 Mode switches and their functions Switch Setting Function or Mode J18 lt 1 gt Switches the input reference zero 0 4 V or 1 65 V The input reference zero is automat ically set at 1 65V in lock in bypass mode In both modes the input signal must remain between 0 4 V and 2 9 V Down Reference zero set to 0 4 V In this mode input signals are treated as unipolar and positive Up Reference zero set to 1 65 V In this mode input signals are treated as bipolar with values below 1 65 V treated as negative and values above treated as positive He Controls the slow DAC LTC 2624 bandwidth allocation Down Configuration 1 Bandwidth allocation ratios are as follows Modulation waveform output 68 1 02 MS s Slow servo piezo voltage channel 2 30 kS s Fast servo diode current channel 307 450 kS s Up Configuration 2 Bandwidth allocation ratios are as follows Modulation waveform output 0 Slow servo piezo voltage channel 2 30 kS s Fast servo diode current channel 98 1 47 MS s JIS 35 Slow servo piezo voltage channel po larity switch Down Original Up Inverted 1 4 2 Displaying and modifying control parameters Parameters such as the modulation amplitude modulation frequency various gains and various filter cutoff frequencies are accessible through the user in terface UI The UI consists of a 2 line character LCD display mode switches momentary push butto
15. 2 401 615 amp Prod PMOD R2R 3 3 The analog capture circuit The analog capture circuit on the FPGA board consists of a LTC6912 dual channel programmable gain pre amplifier connected to a LTC1407 14 bit dual channel 1 5 MS s per channel simultaneous sampling ADC The pre amplifier is programmed to have unity gain in our setup The LTC1407 ADC has two differential inputs with a range of 2 5 V 1 25 V however on the FPGA board the range of the inputs is centered around the 1 65 V internal reference zero Hence the analog capture circuit can only accept incoming signals from 0 4 V to 2 9 V in this design The input impedance of the analog capture circuit is 10 kQ when the pro erammable preamplifier is set to unity gain The input impedance is lower at higher gains The inputs have idle potentials of 1 65 V when not connected 3 4 Power supply The board uses an AC wall adapter to supply 5 V DC through a connector socket on the upper left corner of the board A detailed description of the volt 29 Header J22 eee eee eee eee ELLE Il OT 13 SDO CHANNEL 1 CHANNEL 0 SCK SPI Control Interface AMP_DOUT UG334 cB 02 052407 Figure 24 Detailed view of analog capture circuit from Xilinx user guide 26 age supply on the board can be found at d http www xilinx com support ocumentation boards_and_kits ug334 pdf AC wall adapter connector 5V DC Power control switch Pow
16. 26 Jun 10 14 50 Figure 39 Oscilloscope display The blue trace is the modulation signal The yellow trace is the signal from the Fabry Perot photodiode this is provided to the system as the input signal The purple and green traces are the error signal and the piezo drive signal respectively 4 Increase the slow servo piezo voltage gain starting from 0 At first the lock should become more stable as seen by smaller fluctuations of the error signal As the gain is increased further the error signal will suddenly begin to oscillate and the system will become unstable 5 Starting from around 1 kHz turn down the low pass filter cutoff frequency for the slow servo piezo voltage channel just enough to make the oscil lations in the error signal too small to see 6 Repeat 4 and 5 until further increase of gain destabilizes the laser 40 As a reference the value of the low pass filter cutoff frequency found to be optimal in our setup was around 200 500 mHz 9 9 Procedure for locking with the slow servo and the fast ser vo Assuming the laser is stably locked using the slow servo control piezo voltage channel as described above the fast servo control diode current channel can be added to the lock with the following procedure 5 5 1 Procedure 1 2 Make sure the fast servo diode current gain is set to 0 Set the high pass filter cutoff frequency to around 1 Hz One can reset the filters by pressing the
17. DC Monitor 4 Monitor 3 47 Monitor 2 Monitor 1 2 Channel Input L Monitor 1 GND ADC LTC1407A Input adc a TE E Fe 1 h Not Used adc_b E J19 header mel E EE 6 pin I O Connector E SON lee 4 Channel Output 4 Not Used DACLTC2624 Not Used Modulation Drive E Digital Mod Drive Not Used x Phase Shifted Digital Mod 2 3 A GND Piezo Drive SS VCC Current Drive Figure 10 Inputs and outputs The dual ADC LTC1407 used for the analog inputs reads in two channels at 14 bit precision The input range is from 400 mV to 2 9 V therefore any signal outside this range including signals extending to ground must be shifted with an offset amplifier before being sent to the ADC The sampling rate is 1 5 MS s for each channel A programmable pre amplifier LTC6912 1 is used before each analog input ADC to provide input impedance of 10 k at unity gain This gain can be adjusted using the AS 1 system software and higher gain settings will produce lower input impedances For the native analog outputs a single four channel Linear Technology DAC LTC2624 on the FPGA board generates signals with 12 bit resolution from 0 to 3 3 V with the total 1 5 MS s bandwidth shared among all the four output channels This DAC has a typical allowed output current of up to 20 mA which gives an effective output impedance of 160 Q The LTC2624 has a slew rate of 1 V us and a settling time of 10 ps The high
18. Debug Window Help Program Flash and Load FPGA Program FPGA Only Verify Erase Blank Check Readback Get Device ID Get Device Checksum Hy Documents Classes Assign New Configuration File E Lal Set Programming Properties Set Erase Properties Stream N2 tstream file OxFFF Added Device oo Launch File Assignment Wizard Figure 37 Uploading configuration to the FPGA 39 4 2 Known bugs and how to recover from them 4 2 1 Frozen display In some cases the binary to decimal conversion can take a very long time after switching between menu items in the middle of a conversion If the display appears to be frozen it can be reset by pressing the Display Reset button the south button 5 Procedures for operation This section outlines procedures for operating the system in a typical laser locking application The procedures that follow assume that the user has set up the system in a configuration similar to that shown in figure 40 5 1 Operation modes This system has two primary operation modes the ramp mode and the laser locking mode see section 1 4 1 In the ramp mode the servo signals are effec tively disabled for both the slow servo control piezo voltage and the fast servo control diode current outputs and instead a triangle wave signal is sent to the slow servo control piezo voltage output Hence the laser frequency is tuned back and forth with a linear dependence in time The u
19. IGILENT VE BEYOND THEORY ff Figure 19 FX2 module interface board and block diagram from Digilent FX2 MIB reference manual 2 4 Inputs and outputs The Linear Technology ADC and DAC are laid out as shown in figure 20 22 ADC 6 pin Connector onitor 2 J3 Reference Voltage Monitor J4 Reference Voltage 2 ADC A Input ADC B GND o CT VCC DAC 6 pin Connector AGILENT 000000 ts Pmod Resistor Ladder ADC Monitor 1 GND 2 08 Modulation Drive Out o Not Used s Piezo Drive e Current Drive D NEAR GND E TECHNOLOGY e O PF chere Figure 20 ADC and DAC layout The monitor 1 and 2 signals are drawn from the Pmod resistor ladder DACs which are plugged in on the FX2 interface board via the J3 and J4 12 pin headers and output through the black two pin headers extending from the end of each Pmod DAC The digital square wave modulation signal can be taken from pins 2 and 3 of the J19 header if needed We did not connect this to an output jack on the front panel of the enclosure but the user can do so easily if desired J19 header wm 5 6 pin I O Connector 5 Es E et SE bi gt Not Used 0 e E E N HN Square Dither Signal jou MEZ E min Square Dither Signal Phase Shifted A mn 2 jore Id 6 E GND VCC bnics Figure 21 Digital square wave modulation dither and 6 pin I O extension connector 3 Electrical characteristics 3 1
20. Q Monitor 2 output 0 3 3 V 1 65 V 8 bits 50 MS s gt 10 kQ 8 1 3 Parameters ranges and bit depths Parameters ranges and bit depths precisions are given in 6 Table 6 Control parameters Parameter Range Bit depth Tuning scale Notes Modulation amplitude 0 3 3 V 12 bit Linear Fixed point Modulation frequency 3 kHz 12 5 MHz 12 bit Linear Fixed point Phase 0 27 14 bit Linear Fixed point Lock in filter 0 22 mHz 238 kHz 12 bit Exponential Floating point Piezo low pass filter 0 22 mHz 238 kHz 12 bit Exponential Floating point Current high pass filter 0 22 mHz 238 kHz 12 bit Exponential Floating point Current low pass filter 0 22 mHz 238 kHz 12 bit Exponential Floating point Post mixer gain 0 015 1024 16 bit Exponential Fixed point Piezo gain 1 65536 16 bit Exponential Fixed point Current gain 0 015 1024 16 bit Exponential Fixed point Ramp amplitude 0 3 3 V 11 bit Linear Fixed point Ramp frequency 0 046 Hz 1 5 kHz 4 bit Exponential Increments by 2x Parameter has 12 bit resolution but is tunable over a 30 bit dynamic range 8 2 Miscellaneous characteristics of the system 8 2 1 Overflow and underflow prevention Overflow and underflow occurs in a digital system when the register that cor responds to a signal goes above its allowed maximum value or goes below its allowed minimum value This results in the register value cycling back from the other end of range An example is shown in figure 43 where a sine wave is outp
21. TC2624 1 Modulation out Modulation signal 1 02 MS s or 0 S s put LTC2624 2 N A Not used 0 S s LTC2624 3 Slow servo piezo Ramp or slow PI servo 30 kS s voltage channel control LTC2624 4 Fast servo diode Fast PI servo control 450 kS s or 1 47 MS s current channel High speed analog output Resistor ladder DAC 1 Resistor ladder DAC 2 Resistor ladder DAC 3 Resistor ladder DAC 4 Digital output J19 lt 3 gt J19 2 Monitor 1 Monitor 2 Monitor 3 Monitor 4 Digital square modulation Phase shifted square modula tion TTL trigger synchro nized with ramp wave form High passed error signal or error signal with 8x gain Modulation signal or phase shifted modula tion signal Mixer signal or system input signal Fast square modulation signal Fast square modula tion signal with applied phase offset 0 3 3 V 8 bits gt 10 kQ 50 MS s 50 MS s 50 MS s 50 MS s 0 V 3 3 V 1 bit gt 10 kQ 50 MS s 50 MS s In configuration 1 the analog modulation waveform is output on LT C2624 1 that is channel 1 of the slow DAC In this configuration it is allocated a bandwidth of 1 02 MS s and the fast servo diode current channel is allocated a bandwidth of 450 kS s In configuration 2 the modulation waveform is output instead on resistor ladder DAC 3 allowing a bandwidth of 1 47 MS s to be allocated to the fast servo diode current channel The location of the analog input and outpu
22. User manual for FPGA laser lock in amplifier servo controller G Yang J F Barry E 5 Shuman M H Steinecker D DeMille July 3 2012 Contents TO A E E E E 1 2 1 Lock inamplier 1 2 1 1 Modulation waveform generator 1 2 1 2 Gain and low pass filter module 1 2 2 Two channel proportional integral servo control ee ee eee ee B B pe eee REN NM eee RSS SEEN Pee eR 9H PS ENSE E E RM E IUS 1 4 1 Selecting a mode of operation 1 4 2 1 Fine tuning and coarse tuning 1 4 2 3 Resetting the display 1 4 2 3 Resetting filters 1 43 Parameters that are disabled under certain modes 2 Mechanical layout 2 1 Assembly and connectorization instructions 2 2 On off switch and reset button 2 3 FX extension interface boardl 2 4 Inputs and outputs 3 1 The Linear Technology LTC2624 DACI EE hea BSE Ross 3 3 The analog capture circuit 3 4 Power supplyl 3 0 Related resources Ha 00 N Ot Ot C 4 Initial setup and testing 28 4 1 How to download the softwarel 28 4 2 Known bugs and how to recover from them 36 4 2 1 Frozen display 36 36 See eee eee 36 5 2 Setting the appropriate lock in amplifier low pass fi
23. ation output the monitor 2 output the slow servo piezo voltage output and the fast servo diode current output to inputs 14 of a four channel oscilloscope 3 Turn on the power supply and press the display reset south button once The LCD should appear as in the figure below though the voltage number may be slightly different 90 Figure 45 Default LCD display 4 Set the mode switches to the following values Switch Value SW3 Up High pass filtered signal on monitor 2 SW2 Down Fast servo on SW 1 Down Ramp off SWO Down Sinusoidal modulation 5 Set the parameters to the following values Parameter Value Modulation amplitude 1 65 V Modulation frequency 61 kHz Modulation phase offset 0 Multiplier gain 0 001k 6 Press the filter reset north button once You should see the slow servo piezo voltage output and the fast servo diode current output are both reset to 1 65 V If not please check that you have the latest version of the program 7 On the oscilloscope monitor 2 should appear as a smooth sinusoidal signal If not try decreasing the low pass filter gain A zig zag appearance in the signal indicates that the overall gain is too high and the 14 bit process is saturated If decreasing the filter gain doesnt solve the problem and the signal still looks distorted the program may be corrupted Try updating the firmware or if a new version is not available uploading the same ver
24. d by the Nyquist frequency of the analog input ADC at 750 kHz A digital modulation signal output is also provided that can generate a 3 3 V peak to peak square wave at 50 MS s The modulation waveform either analog or digital is phase shifted inter nally to generate a phase offset modulation waveform with 12 bit phase preci sion The display gives the phase shift in units of 7 When a digital square wave modulation is used both the phase shifted and non phase shifted modulation signals are provided as outputs for testing and comparison Figure 3 Display shots of the waveform generator The 14 bit input signal from the ADC is multiplied with the phase shifted modulation waveform to produce what we refer to as the mixer output signal 1 2 1 2 Gain and low pass filter module The mixer output signal is mul tiplied by a pre filter gain between the mixer and the filter so called post mixer gain in the menu and low pass filtered through an infinite impulse response fil ter IIR filter The IIR implementation of the low pass filter has exactly the same characteristics as an ideal simple RC filter and is completely specified by its cut off frequency f see figure 4 A proof of the equivalence of an IIR filter and an RC filter is provided in the companion paper Il 2 1 2TRC Figure 5 Screen shots of RC filter con Figure 4 RC filter circuit diagram trol parameters 1 2 2 Two channel proportional integral servo control
25. dispersion like signal i e broadens the line without increasing its ampli tude Adjust the central frequency of the laser using e g the piezo offset on the laser s controller and turn down the amplitude of the ramp to zoom in on a peak of interest for locking Procedure for locking with the slow servo piezo volt age channel With the phase and the lock in gain set up correctly locking the laser using the slow servo control piezo voltage channel is simply a matter of increasing this servos gain up to a level just below where the system begins to undergo auto oscillation This procedure assumes the same connections are in place as described in section 39 5 4 1 Procedure 1 Disable the fast servo diode current channel by turning its gain down to Zero 2 Reset the filters by pressing the north button 3 To tune to a transmission line first turn off the ramp by flipping SW1 down Observe the Fabry Perot transmission signal on a time scale such that the modulation frequency is easily visible Adjust the laser s fre quency using e g the piezo offset on the laser s controller You are tuned to a transmission line when the transmission signal shows periodic oscillations at a frequency twice that of the modulation frequency Typical signals under these conditions are shown in figure 39 M Pos 20 00 us ACQUIRE PeetrtterpererrrereL_ eee eerie III EMI ee ee eee ae Average Averages M 5 00 us
26. du lated system input signal Monitor 3 Modulation signal Monitor 4 System input signal Monitor 2 High pass filtered signal from the fast servo channel Monitor 3 Phase shifted modulation signal Monitor 4 Mixer signal from after the lock in multiplier but before the lock in low pass filter Controls the fast servo diode current channel Fast servo channel enabled In this mode the low pass filter cutoff frequency on the fast servo channel is determined by the setting in the menu Fast servo channel disabled In this mode the low pass filter cutoff frequency on the fast servo channel is set to 14 mHz 1 1 5 minutes effec tively disabling this channel Controls the ramp Ramp enabled The display switches to RAMP is ON The ramp mode disconnects the slow servo piezo voltage channel from its output and instead a symmetric tri angle wave with frequency and am plitude specified on the LCD is sent to the slow servo output In ramp mode the low pass filter frequencies for both servo channels are set to 14 mHz 1 1 5 minutes effectively disabling the two servos 46 Reprint of table 2 Mode switches and functionalities Switch Setting Function or Mode Up Ramp disabled The slow servo piezo voltage channel is connected to its output normally and its low pass filter frequency determined normally by the setting in the menu SWO Selects the modulation waveform ana log sine or digital square
27. dulation Drive Out Monitor 2 Out Through Probe Monitor 1 Out Through Probe GND 7 VCC a ee ee ee USB connector Power Switch Reference Voltage Reference Voltage 2 ADC A Input ADC B fin Connector Used to connect with the resistor ladder DAC Extension Card Connector 1 DIGILENT O z JE BEYONO THEORY INAR MIB we pr Made Diiss s Push Button Figure 17 Assembly schematic 2 2 On off switch and reset button The on off switch of the board and the FPGA reset button can be found as indicated in figure 18 The on off switch is used to turn the power on and off The reset button can be used to quickly reset or reprogram the FPGA This should not disrupt any connection between the FPGA and a computer being used to program it 21 SV Power Jacket BAT O Off Switch Reset Button ae mah um es I hy yr inr LI ES DDR SDRAM TE s itz ex Figure 18 On off switch and reset button 2 3 FX2 extension interface board The FX2 high speed extension port on the demo board is used to connect to the Digilent FX2 Module Interface Board MIB shown in figure 19 In our setup four resistor ladder DACs are connected through the 12 pin Pmod connectors on the FX2 MIB FX2 Connector LEER E EE r nw J9 JTAG Socket 1x6 Pmod 2x6 Pmod Connectors Connectors ABEL AD
28. e or coarse tuning can be selected Turning the knob freely without de pressing the knob each rotary step changes the value of the selected parameter by 12 5 If the knob is depressed a finer change of 1 56 will take place with each rotary step 1 4 2 2 Resetting the display Ifthe display appears frozen it can be reset by pressing the Display Reset button the south button See section 4 2 1 1 4 2 3 Resetting filters To reset the high and low pass filters a global filter reset is available as the north pushbutton When trying to lock a laser to a spectral line it is important to have the low pass filters zeroed to provide the best lock with maximized locking range on 18 each side Low pass filters with relatively high cutoff frequency such as the lock in amplifier low pass are generally less sensitive to this condition To confirm that the slow servo low pass filter is zeroed one can compare this channel s output with the standard 1 65 V reference voltage 1 4 3 Parameters that are disabled under certain modes In some modes of operation certain parameters are not applicable or have pre defined values These inactive parameters are given in table 3 Table 3 Inactive parameters Mode Inactive parameters Notes Fast servo Fast servo diode current This parameter is set to diode cur low pass filter cutoff fre 14 mHz to effectively dis rent off quency able the fast servo channel Ram
29. ed spectral feature for locking Using a four channel oscilloscope make the following connections to prepare for the procedure that follows Using a tee connect the Fabry Perot transmis sion signal which provides the input to the system maintain this connection as well to scope channel 1 Connect the modulation signal output to scope channel 2 and trigger on its rising edge Connect the monitor 2 output to scope channel 3 and the slow servo control piezo voltage channel output to scope channel 4 If only a two channel scope is available instead connect the monitor 2 output to scope channel 1 and the Fabry Perot transmission signal to scope channel 2 connect the modulation signal output to the external trigger channel of the scope and trigger on its rising edge An example is shown in figure 39 Note If the transmission signal extends below 400 mV you must use an offset amplifier to ensure that the minimum voltage sent to the system input remains above 400 mV The system input has a range from 400 mV to 2 9 V 5 3 1 Procedure 1 Turn on the power to the board 2 Reset the low pass filters by pressing the north button 3 If using the analog modulation output pick a modulation waveform fre quency that is less than 150 kHz The default modulation waveform fre quency is 61 kHz If using the digital modulation output at J19 3 the frequency can be set as high as 700 kHz 4 Leave the modulation amplitude as 1 V defau
30. emACE Create PROM File PR ES iMPACT Processes 0 amp X Available Operations are Do you want the system to automatically create and save a project file for you Don t show this message again save the setting in preference Welcome to iMPACT iMPACT Version 11 3 No Cable Connection No File Open Figure 29 Automatic project creation dialog box 7 In the next dialog box choose the option shown in figure and click OK The system should automatically detect the FPGA device If so skip to step If not continue with the next step 30 Please select an action from the list below 9 Configure devices using Boundary Scan JTAG Automatically connect to a cable and identify Boundary Scan chain Prepare a PROM File Prepare a System ACE File Prepare a Boundary Scan File Sv C Configure devices using Slave Serial mode M Figure 30 Automatic device detection dialog box 31 Wie ISE iMPACT C Users Butfer Lab Desktop FPGA Projects120090702 Laser Testing with Switch for Current Sign auto_proj Eile Edit View Operations Qutput Debug Window Help Den Gaxa aT w IMPACT Flows pex 29 Boundary Scan So SlaveSerial Direct SPI SystemACE Create PROM File PR Right click device to select operations IMPACT Processes Dx Available Operations are E Console PROGRESS END End Operation Elapsed time 0 sec BATCH CMD ide
31. ences between production batches of the demo board the direction of increment may vary i e a clockwise turn may increase the value in some boards while a counterclockwise turn might do so in others The rotary knob on the demo board has a built in push button that is used to 17 Lock in low Ramp amplitude Modulation Modulation Modulation ock in low pass Slow servo piezo Frequency amolitude ee hase shift filter cutoff P volt low pass filter and state on off P 3 y P frequency cutoff frequency Fast servo diode Slow servo piezo Post mixer lock in Fast servo diode current low Fast servo diode cur high current gain voltage gain amplifier gain pass filter cutoff frequency pass filter cutoff frequency Figure 14 Menu items choose between coarse and fine changes of the parameter during knob rotation see figure 15 In ramp mode this is used to choose between adjusting the ramp frequency by depressing the knob while turning and adjusting the ramp amplitude by turning the knob freely Rotary Push Button FPGA I O Pin 3 3V ES EVA ROT_CENTER Signal c2 05 021206 Figure 15 Rotary knob central push button switch from the Digilent manual 1 4 2 1 Fine tuning and coarse tuning When changing any given param eter the change that takes place at each step is a fixed fraction of the original value The only exception is the phase which is changed linearly instead of logarithmically Fin
32. er on status LED x E a REG2 SCL Supply to FPGA REG2_SDA VO Bank3 DDR2 SDRAM Supply to FPGA mi core VCCAUX REG1 SCL 6 Lac REG1 SDA J9 EN Supply to FPGA core VCCINT UG330 cx 01 021507 Supply to FPGA VO Banks 0 1 2 Figure 25 Power supply and details of voltage suppliers from Xilinx user guide 3 5 Related resources Refer to the following links for additional information and datasheets e Xilinx Spartan 3A 3AN FPGA Starter Kit Board User Guide http www xilinx com support documentation boards_and_kits ug334 pdf e LTC2624 Quad DAC Datasheet http www linear com pc downloadDccument do naviId HO C1 C1155 C1005 C1156 P2048 D2170 e Resistor Ladder DAC http www digilentinc com Data Products PMID R2R PmodR2R_rm_RevB pdf e LTC6912 Dual Programmable Gain Amplifiers with Serial Digital Inter face http www linear com pc downloadDocument do navId H0 C1 C1154 C1009 C1121 P7596 D5359 e LTC1407A 1 Serial 14 bit Simultaneous Sampling ADCs with Shutdown http www linear com pc downloadDocument do navId HO C1 C1155 C1001 C01158 P2420 D1295 27 A 1 Initial setup and testing How to download the software First the WebPACK software from Xilinx must be installed To down load this software from the Xilinx website the user needs to register See http www xilinx com tools webpack htm Complete the regis tration download the software
33. es ox o9 3 13 Aria arras ESr 17 13 Rotary knob and push button switches 17 l4 a sa eee XX X mox Wok X A ee Xe x dox XP ee s 18 15 Rotary knob central push button switch 18 16 Assembly layout 20 17 Assembly schematic 21 18 On off switch and reset button 22 19 FX2 module interface board and block diagram 22 20 ADC and DAC layout 23 21 Digital square wave modulation dither and 6 pin I O extension connector x x eee eR eRe eRe id ee EKER gt 22 Output glitch noise of the LTC2624 24 23 The PmodR2R resistor ladder DACJI 25 24 Detailed view of analog capture circuit 26 25 Power supply and details of voltage suppliers 21 26 Icon for Xilinx iMPACT application 28 27 Jumper locations 29 25 USB status LED gente ee debe eee Oe wee eta des 29 29 Automatic project creation dialog box 30 30 Automatic device detection dialog box 31 31 Device detection 32 32 Selecting Intialize Chain in the drop down menu 33 33 Automatic device configuration 33 34 Manual device configuration
34. features of a single peak can be seen 8 Center the peak adjust the laser frequency using e g the piezo offset on the laser s controller such that the peak is located at the midpoint that is 1 65 V of the triangle ramping signal 9 To make sure the lock in amplifier gain is set properly select the mixer output signal for output on monitor 4 by flipping SW3 up Temporarily disconnect monitor 2 from the scope and connect monitor 4 to this scope channel 10 Turn the lock in amplifier gain up and down until the mixer output signal is around half of the total dynamic range around 1 65 2 V peak to peak if no other attenuation or amplification is in place Then the lock in amplifier gain is set properly 11 Flip 5W3 down to select the error signal for output on monitor 2 Dis connect monitor 4 from the scope and reconnect monitor 2 to this scope channel You should see a dispersion shaped curve with a reference zero crossing at the position of the spectral peak on the raw input signal Now start to change the phase using the east or west button to select the phase offset parameter on the LCD and adjusting its value using the 38 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 9 4 rotary knob The amplitude of the dispersion shaped error signal should start to decrease Find the phase at which the error signal is a zeroed line even when scanning through a transmission line Now the phase corresponds to 47
35. his disables the lock servo loops Look at the er ror signal on an oscilloscope Measure the peak to peak amplitude of the reference zero crossing error signal as well as the time difference between the positive peak and the negative peak of a single dispersion shaped line see figure 38 With the same ramp amplitude and frequency also mea sure the time difference between successive positive or successive negative peaks that is across a full free spectral range FSR of the cavity With a known FSR of the cavity we can work out the conversion factor be tween the amplitude of the error signal near the zero crossing and the change in laser frequency Blaser Make sure the same spectral line with the same amplitude is measured here as is used for locking the laser since the amplitude of the peak will affect this conversion factor 43 3 Now return the laser to lock as described in section Once re locked look at the error signal on a spectrum analyzer Integrate power spectral density in units Vims Hz over the whole bandwidth determined by the number of samples and take the square root of the integral to get the Vms Of the error signal 4 Convert the RMS error signal voltage deviation to a linewidth A fims USING Ame Views Glace 6 3 Performance data In our test setup we obtained the power spectral density data shown in figure 107 Free Running Laser Afrms 273kHz Slow Servo Lock Only Afrms 302kHz
36. iode current channel and 30 kS s for the slow servo control piezo voltage channel In configuration 2 the modulation output is completely by passed providing 1 47 MS s of bandwidth to the fast servo control diode cur rent channel and 30 kS s for the slow servo control piezo voltage channel Slide switch J18 lt 2 gt allows the user to choose between these modes see table 2 More information on the LTC2624 DAC can be found on the Linear Tech nology website http www linear com product LTC2624 3 2 The Digilent PmodR2R resistor ladder DACs The PmodR2R DACs provide 8 bit digital to analog conversion at up to 25 MHz Note from the design schematics shown in figure 23 it is easy to estimate that these DACs do not output any current less that 0 1 mA and therefore they should only be used to drive a high impedance device such as an oscilloscope 24 or buffer amplifier The high output impedance of the Pmod R2R DACs also means that fast signals will be severely attenuated if the outputs are sent through coaxial cables of any significant capacitance J2 Pin Signal OK LE Jo LA E 22 j pe B Jigs uy pa http www digilentinc com p Iz KF Data Products PMOD R2R xx 210K PmodR2R block 207 gif it x 20K 220K Figure 23 The PmodR2R resistor ladder DAC More information on the PmodR2R DAC can be found on the Digilent web site http www digilentinc com Products Detail cfm NavPath
37. lt setting for now This does not affect the digital modulation output which is fixed at 3 3 V peak to peak Increasing the modulation amplitude will change the shape of the dispersion like see figure 38 error signal as well as the capture range Proper amplitude can be found after one is able to display the dispersion like signal on a scope that is after step 13 In a typical application the non phase shifted modulation signal is used to drive an acousto optic modulator AOM which dithers the laser frequency before it enters a Fabry Perot cavity the transmission signal is then read on a photodiode and provided to the system as the input signal This produces some unknown phase delay relative to the non phase shifted modulation signal Finding the proper phase offset refers to finding the offset corre sponding to this unknown phase delay so that the lock in amplifier may correctly demodulate the input signal using the phase shifted modulation signal 37 Reference zero Figure 38 Dispersion curve shape adapted from http users phys au dk philip pictures physicsfigures 5 Turn on the ramp by sliding the switch SW1 to the up position 6 Observe the Fabry Perot transmission signal on the scope and change the central laser frequency using e g the piezo offset on the laser s controller until the desired spectral peak is found 7 Change the ramping amplitude to get a proper scanning range where
38. lter cutoff fre A AA A A 36 PARAS 37 OT D OGC RO arde Rue xou AA nn 37 5 4 Procedure for locking with the slow servo piezo voltage channel 39 DEI Procedufel e 66 oh we 4 DOE Bee o o4 X 2 3 3 40 MEET 9 0 1 a s 22 x oROxO w Ow 9 xoxo x9 9o X 3 owsocxkOX S o Eos 41 42 Laa aaa 42 6 2 Procedure for estimating laser linewidth 43 6 2 1 Procedure 4 ww om AA 43 1394 9 ENIM 44 44 f l Making the DOX o suede koe ox Xx ow eee dees BEX ee ew wo 45 8 Appendix 45 8 1 Quick referencel 45 8 1 1 Switch configurations 45 8 1 2 Input and output ranges 47 eer 48 8 2 Miscellaneous characteristics of the system 48 8 2 1 Overflow and underflow prevention 48 E EEEE EEEE ERE 49 a 49 8 8 Troubleshooting the lock 49 8 3 1 Testing procedure 50 8 4 Related resources 52 List of Figures 1 System block diagram 6 2 Lock in amplifier 6 3 Display shots of the waveform generator 7 aaa T Rene 7 6 Piezo and diode current servo channels 8 7 Bode plot of servo loops 8 aa 9 TARA 9 10 Inputs and outputs 648 4260042 Eo ck 4s ds 10 Il Demo board layout 2 4 xoxo koxc9o sos 0 b
39. n in order for the system to function Table 2 lists the function of the eight mode switches Table 2 Mode switches and their functions Switch Setting Function or Mode SW3 Selects the monitor output signal func tion Monitor 1 always provides a TTL trigger synchronized with the ramp Down Monitor 2 Error signal or demodu lated system input signal Monitor 3 Modulation signal Monitor 4 System input signal Up Monitor 2 High pass filtered signal from the fast servo channel Monitor 3 Phase shifted modulation signal Monitor 4 Mixer signal from after the lock in multiplier but before the lock in low pass filter oW2 Controls the fast servo diode current channel Down Fast servo channel enabled In this mode the low pass filter cutoff frequency on the fast servo channel is determined by the setting in the menu Up Fast servo channel disabled In this mode the low pass filter cutoff frequency on the fast servo channel is set to 14 mHz 1 1 5 minutes effec tively disabling this channel SW1 Controls the ramp Down Ramp enabled The display switches to RAMP is ON The ramp mode disconnects the slow servo piezo voltage channel from its output and instead a symmetric tri angle wave with frequency and am plitude specified on the LCD is sent to the slow servo output In ramp mode the low pass filter frequencies for both servo channels are set to 14 mHz 1 1 5 minutes effectively disabling the two servos
40. ns and a rotary knob with an integrated push button 16 Up Down Square Sine Dither RAMP On Off EE Current Off On Previous Item Monitor Mode Selection Down Up Monitor_2 lt Err High pass Monitor_3 lt Mod ModDelay Monitor 4 Input Mixer Filter Reset Modulation Amp J 3 300000V 2 line LCD Display showing a menu item and parameter value Reset Org Piezo Output Polarity Dynamic Bandwidth Input Reference Lock in Bypass Next Item Figure 12 User interface All the available parameters are presented in the menu in a cyclical sequence as shown in figure The user can cycle through the control parameters by pushing the west and east push buttons The south button is used to reset the LCD display The north button can be used to zero all the low pass filters in the control system equivalent to discharging the capacitors in an analog low pass filter Rotary Push Button Switch OLA TD BTN WEST BIN_NORTH ROT B R14 T14 ROT CENTER R13 BTN EAST T16 S Rotary Knob Mode Switches Push Button To Previous Menu Item BTN_NORTH Reset Filters A chiar ies Fine and Coarse Control BTN_EAST To Next Menu Item on De Reset the Display Figure 13 Rotary knob and push button switches adapted from the Digilent manual To modify a parameter the user turns the rotary knob shown in figure 13 Due to hardware differ
41. ntifyMPM Figure 31 Device detection 8 If the detection failed disconnect and reconnect the FPGA device Wait for the green LED on the side of the USB jacket to blink a couple of times 9 Right click in the area indicated in figure to bring up a drop down menu click Initialize Chain 32 ae File Edit View a ce tn Debug Window Help ma Boundary Scan 4 SlaveSerial HR Direct SPI SystemACE Create PROM File PROM File Format Right click to Add Device or Initialize JTAG chain Available Operations are Add Xilinx Device Add Non Xilinx Device Initialize Chain Cable Auto Connect PROGRESS END End Operation Cable Setup Elapsed time 4 sec Cable autodetection failed Output File Type No Cable Connection No File Open Figure 32 Selecting Intialize Chain in the drop down menu 10 After communication with the device is established iMPACT will need to assign configuration files This will either begin automatically as shown in figure or by right clicking the device and choosing Assign New Configuration File from the drop down menu as shown in figure 34 Do you want to continue and assign configuration files s EJ Don t show this message again save the setting in preference data xcf04s vice xcf04s ves no BERE Figure 34 Manual device Figure 33 Automatic device configuration configuration 33 11 For the FPGA
42. of 1 order beam Slow servo piezo volt output a f 20dB attenuator M J I T I 20dB attenuator K Offset amplifier Fast servo diode cur output External cavity Feedback control system Amplified diode laser photodiode orm m m e n Rn a n Figure 40 Testing setup The photodiode signal is offset by 400 mV using a Stanford Research Systems SRS voltage amplifier 58560 in order to match the reference zero of the input channel of our system The offset is set by turning a small screw on the front panel of the SRS amplifier With this 400 mV offset the photodiode signal with no light is lifted from 0 V to 400 mV and will be read by the ADC as zero 2Looking at the spectrum of the error signal one can tune the parameters to achieve the least root mean squared of the power spectrum However note that decreasing the modulation amplitude will change the slope of the zero crossing dispersion like signal and therefore affect the amplitude of the error signal Change of the lock in amplifier gain will also change the apparent amplitude of the error signal These changes do not reflect a tighter lock 42 On the output end a 20 dB Mini Circuits attenuator is used between the slow servo piezo voltage output and the laser controller s piezo input to limit the effect of the glitch noise of the DAC see section 3 1 Similarly another 20 dB attenuator is used in series with
43. p Slow servo piezo voltage These parameters are set to mode and fast servo diode cur 14 mHz to effectively dis rent low pass filter cutoff able both servo channels frequencies Lock in Input reference zero The input reference zero is bypass locked at 1 65 V Switch mode J18 lt 1 gt has no effect 2 Mechanical layout 2 1 Assembly and connectorization instructions The system includes the Digilent Spartan 3AN demo board and an FX2 Module Interface Board MIB As shown in figure 16 four Pmod resistor ladder DACs are attached to the J1 J4 12 pin headers on the FX2 interface board to provide outputs for the monitor 1 4 signals An additional Pmod slide switch board is connected via J18 A sample layout of the BNC cable connectors in an enclosure is shown in figure 17 The user must connect cables between the output pins on the boards and the BNC connectors on the enclosure We have soldered small coaxial cables directly to pins on the board The outer conductors of the cables and BNC connectors are connected to the ground terminals on the board 19 r BNC L Ca M 3 Resistor Ne AE GE NE ONE ENE Ladder DAC t orm Flay EL DIGILENT FX2 Module Interface Board Figure 16 Assembly layout 20 J Aj Input A an a IN T Z Modulation Prive Out Y IZ Not Used 7 4 Slow PI Piezo Drive m NI A Fast PI Current Drive Out Z Phase Shifted Digital Mod Digital Mo
44. plifier The role of the lock in amplifier is two fold first to generate and output a modulation signal at some specified frequency and second to demodulate the input signal to the system using the same generated modulation signal with a phase offset The architecture of the lock in amplifier unit can be seen in figure 2 Its key components include a modulation waveform generator a multiplier with gain and a low pass filter The lock in amplifier can also be bypassed to use the system as a dedicated feedback servo details of this mode of operation are given in section 5 1 1 2 1 1 Modulation waveform generator The user can choose to output a sinusoidal signal through a DAC or a digital square wave signal with fixed amplitude To output the sinusoidal signal the user can opt to use the integrated Linear Technology LTC2624 quad DAC or one of the monitor output channels provided by several 25 MHz resistor ladder DACs Digilent PmodR2R which are con nected to extension ports on the FPGA board When using the LTC2624 due to the modest slew rate 1 V us we recommend a modulation frequency less than 150 kHz If the faster resistor ladder DAC is used the maximum usable 1 Signal Processing Unit SPU Signal Available through fast DACs can be switched from left to right via Monitor Mode Switch i Ramp Y O Monitor 1 R Tri o3 onitor 1 amp Trigger EN Monitor 2 2 Erro
45. r face http www linear com pc downloadDocument do navId HO C1 C1154 C1009 C1121 P7596 D5359 e LTC1407A 1 Serial 14 bit Simultaneous Sampling ADCs with Shutdown http www linear com pc downloadDocument do navId HO C1 C1155 C1001 C01158 P2420 D1295
46. r Signal 5 High pass Output Ramp Trigger Input M Monitor 3 3 Modulation 6 Delayed Modulation a Monitor 4 4 ADC Input 7 Mixer Output I P gt Ve N AA AA A s A AA A EE EE FE ete Reference ET Piezo Drive y e le IE Zero y Lock in Amplifier l i C m O M E Sig Gain LOW PASS o o3 Modulation Drive Lock in Gain rror oigna M Filter y 8 m Current Drive Sul Modulation O oO FREE Waveform Generator f FIUIM GG 1 Low pass nk Mod Drive 7 Filter KK l RA Phase Shifter High o Ga Low pass Filter ain Filter 4 4 Phase shifted V Digital Mod Drive NT LIII CIL IL lt P afi Y eae IE ce aes gt Control Parameter Bus Left and Right mi El Ro Button g b d Machine to Physical Parameter Converter OA a in Rotary Knob Parameter Selection Parameter Vector Global Reset Binary to of filters Parameter Decimal Modifier Converter LCD Display LCD Reset x d EU Figure 1 System block diagram Transmission Input Mixer Output Modulation Drive Digital Mod Drive Error Signal PAMRIer Lock in Amplifier Phase shifted Phase Shifter Low pass Filter Digital Mod Drive Figure 2 Lock in amplifier modulation frequency is limite
47. ser can turn the ramp mode on or off by flipping switch SW1 on the FPGA demo board see table In the laser locking mode the system servo controls the laser wavelength based on the error signal that is generated by the on board lock in amplifier In this mode the laser can be locked using both the fast and slow servos or the slow servo alone A lock in bypass mode is also available enabled using switch J18 0 gt see table 2 This mode is intended to allow the user to provide a bipolar error signal centered around the 1 65 V reference zero as the system input this error signal is then used directly by the slow servo control piezo voltage and fast servo control diode current channels The internal lock in amplifier is bypassed and the modulation output is disabled Note however that the lock in amplifier s low pass filter is still in effect in this mode 5 2 Setting the appropriate lock in amplifier low pass filter cutoff frequency The low pass filter cutoff frequency of the lock in amplifier should be less than 1 6 times the modulation frequency to adequately suppress the response of the system at the modulation frequency 36 5 3 Procedure for ramping setting the lock in gain and preparing for laser locking The procedure in this section is used to determine a useful range of gain for the lock in amplifier to find the proper phase offset for the modulation signal and to center the laser frequency on the desir
48. sing unit and a user interface The waveform processing components of the system consist of a lock in amplifier unit which generates and outputs its own modulation waveform and two channels of PI servo control The waveform processing unit generates servo feedback outputs based on an error signal input that is some signal corresponding to the difference between the measured process variable and its setpoint In a typical application the system provides a modulation signal that is used to produce a modulated error signal this signal is then provided to the system as the input and is demodulated by the lock in amplifier Alternatively the lock in unit can be bypassed and an error signal can be provided directly as the system input In either case further processing transforms the error signal into feedback to be delivered by the servo control output channels In addition the user can choose to output a symmetric triangle wave or ramp signal to the slow servo control piezo voltage output channel In a typical application this scans the frequency of a laser back and forth to allow one or more resonant transmission peaks of a Fabry Perot cavity to be observed using a photodiode The user interface presents the values of the internal control parameters and allows the user to change these parameters during operation Figure 1 shows the relationship between the waveform processing unit and the user interface 1 2 1 Lock in am
49. sion to the board again Successful completion of this test shows that the multiplier and the gain are working properly as are all the connections to the resistor ladder DAC 8 Now flip SW3 down which should output the error signal on monitor 2 9 Changes made to the lock in amplifier low pass filter cutoff frequency will have an effect on the overall amplitude of the error signal which decreases ol when the filter cutoff frequency is decreased below the modulation fre quency If you see a signal with discontinuities or with discontinuities in its slope try decreasing the lock in amplifier gain If decreasing the gain does not solve the problem try updating the firmware or if a new version is not available uploading the same version to the board again Also check the integrity of each physical connection to the board If successful this test shows that the lock in amplifier low pass filter is working properly 10 Now increase the lock in amplifier gain until the error signal on monitor 2 shows a clear sine wave 11 Now look at the slow servo piezo voltage output and the fast servo diode current output Repeat steps 9 and for each of these servo channels If changing the gain does not render a smooth sinusoidal signal for any output one of the filter units in this channel is not functioning correctly Try updating the firmware or if a new version is not available downloading the same version to the board again If successf
50. t to a cutoff frequency of 14 mHz whenever the ramp is on Ramp Control R Ramp ne Piezo Gain Piezo Filter Peel E Piezo Drive Time Constant AGA o E A o Error Signal Current Drive High pass Diode diode current Filter Time Filter Current Gain pri Figure 8 Ramp control of servo drive The ramp frequency is displayed as a single number which we call the ramp frequency exponent from 0 to 15 The digits above 9 are displayed as 10 gt 4 11 67 12 lt 13 gt 14 gt gt 15 gt The ramp frequency in Hz is 1500 2 where x is the ramp frequency exponent The default ramp frequency exponent of 6 corresponds to a frequency of 24 Hz 1 115 nTFEFRENTIRL TX PAIRS Je ES Figure 9 Ramp display The peak to peak amplitude of the ramp is controlled with 12 bit precision from 0 to 3 3 V the triangle wave has a fixed mean voltage of 1 65 V Rotating the knob while the ramp menu item is displayed changes the amplitude With the same menu displayed the frequency can be changed by depressing and turning the knob simultaneously 1 3 Signal inputs and outputs There are two channels of analog input four channels of analog output and two channels of digital output native to the Spartan 3AN demo board Through the attached expansion board another four channels of high speed analog monitor output are provided Pmod Resistor Ladder A
51. ter cutoff frequency does not make a substantial difference do not continue increasing the cutoff frequency The effect of the fast servo diode current channel is more obvious if one uses a spectrum analyzer to monitor the spectrum of fluctuations in the laser frequency To do this send the error signal output to a spectrum analyzer and adjust the fast servo diode current and slow servo piezo Al voltage gains as described in step l6 to minimize the Vins seen on the spectrum analyzer This should produce the narrowest laser linef 6 Performance 6 1 Overview To test the performance of this system we locked a Toptica external cavity diode laser DL100 to a transmission line of a Fabry Perot cavity The schematic of the test setup is shown in figure The optical frequency modulation is accomplished with an acousto optic modulator AOM the AOM is driven by a voltage controlled oscillator VCO whose frequency in turn is dithered by the modulation signal from our system The Fabry Perot has a finesse of 200 and a free spectral range of 1 GHz giving it transmission peaks with spectral widths of 5 MHz An amplified photodiode transforms the laser light transmitted through the Fabry Perot cavity into a voltage signal To experiment Acousto optic modulator Voltage controlled F oscillator RF drive out l 1 Modulation drive Fabry Perot DC offset F 7 cavity l V s 15t Double pass
52. this configuration the system can stabilize the output frequency of the laser and ramp its piezo voltage to scan for spectral features By bypassing the lock in function the system can operate as a dedicated two channel feedback servo All the control parameters can be changed on the fly through onboard ro tary knobs and push buttons and their values are displayed on a two line LCD display in real time A dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithm allows the user to change the amount of bandwidth assigned to certain analog output channels by simply flipping a switch Some details of the signal processing inside the AS 1 can be monitored during normal operation Four channels of high speed monitor signal output are offered to provide critical checkpoints along the data processing pathway The system is subject to a few limitations of which the user should be aware First the input and output signals are unipolar with limited ranges of allowed voltage It may be necessary to add offset voltages and or auxiliary hardware in order to provide compatibility between the AS 1 and the remainder of a users setup Second the analog to digital ADC and digital to analog conversion DAC hardware have finite bandwidth though the servo loop speeds we have achieved are suitable for many standard laser locking protocols Details of these limitations are given later in this manual 1 2 Principles of operation The system consists of a waveform proces
53. ts are shown in figure 11 12 BNC Connectors Input T BRIO A SOUSISJOY Modulation Drive Not Used Current Drive I Piezo Drive Y Il f o c t un a e o 5 9880 A SOU9I9JOY 1ndu y J0J9auu09 All the BNC connectors are grounded with a ejds q GOT IILI oul C 1oJ9ouu09 uid 9 jy q 10399407 uid 9 DAY yoyoer A ddng 1amog Ag 3223225 common ground o 8 a amp y F Digital Mod Drive Phase shifted Digital Mod Drive um i nd IX Monitor 2 ee ms ele ms SI ms e o ms IMS sayo onng ysnd 9 qouy re3oT e e Extension Card Connector AUD MAPA EL MAP DADA SADA 1 4 4 4 4 4 44 4347 J19 Header UM IE VCC GND J19 lt 0 3 gt FX2 Module Interface Board MIB e Monitor 2 Monitor 1 12 Pin Connector Used to connect with the resistor ladder DAC AER TC ANOZ3HL GNOASE Figure 11 Demo board layout 1 4 Basics of operation 1 4 1 Selecting a mode of operation Figure 12 shows the layout of the mode switches On the left side of the knob the slide switches are from left to right SW3 SW2 SW1 and SWO On the right side four additional switches are plugged into the extension connector J18 They are from left to right J18 lt 0 gt J18 lt 1 gt J18 lt 2 gt and J18 lt 3 gt 13 Please note that these four switches must be plugged i
54. ul this test shows that the whole feedback control system is working properly 12 In order to test the ramp flip SW1 up which turns the ramp on Observe the ramp signal from the slow servo piezo voltage output Now confirm the functionality of the ramp by changing the ramp amplitude parameter The mean value of the signal should not change If this signal does not respond as expected try updating the firmware or if a new version is not available uploading the same version to the board again Also check each physical connection to the board 13 To change the ramp frequency turn the knob while keeping the knob depressed If the frequency does not change as expected try updating the firmware or if a new version is not available downloading the same version to the board again Now the whole system has been tested and it is ready to be used to lock a laser 8 4 Related resources Refer to the following links for additional information and data sheets for the commercial hardware devices used in this work e Xilinx Spartan 3A 3AN FPGA Starter Kit Board User Guide http www xilinx com support documentation boards_and_kits ug334 pdf e LTC2624 Quad DAC Data Sheet http www linear com pc downloadDocument do navid HO C1 C1155 C1005 C1156 P2048 D2170 e Resistor Ladder DAC http www digilentinc com Data Products PMID R2R PmodR2R_rm_RevB pdf 92 e LTC6912 Dual Programmable Gain Amplifiers with Serial Digital Inte
55. ut digitally The lower half of the signal extends to too low a voltage and demonstrates underflow During the setup of the lock the lock in amplifier gain has to be small enough to prevent overflow to the multiplier This can be done by examining the mixer output and looking for signs of distortion like that described above Overflow 48 M Pos 14 00 us Figure 43 Example of an underflow error signal or underflow can be prevented by reducing the lock in amplifier gain when they are observed In the rest of the system overflow and underflow protection are implemented within each low pass filter 8 2 2 Pipelined architecture Due to limited resources on the low cost Spartan 3AN700 FPGA a pipelined architecture is used for all three low pass filter units with gain and the high pass filter unit This allows the calculations for all four filter units to be com pleted in 10 clock cycles rather than 16 8 2 3 Modulation waveform generator implementation The modulation waveform generator is very similar to a standard Direct Digital Synthesizer DDS in design A 32 bit internal phase counter accumulates phase at each clock cycle with a variable step A 12 by 14 bit lookup table then translates the first 16 bits of the counter to a sinusoidal waveform To limit memory usage only one quarter of the whole period is stored 8 3 Troubleshooting the lock Currently there is no functionality in the program to display the soft
56. ware version number Therefore it is important to make sure before starting that the board has loaded the right program and is functioning properly This can be done simply by downloading the newest firmware to the board when the original version is uncertain AQ In addition a sequence of Power On Tests POT can help the user be come more familiar with the internal processing algorithms These steps can be skipped once the user is confident with the system The following sequence may help in understanding and testing the function ality of the system In order to show the correct result in the following testing sequence all of the waveform processing units in the FPGA as well as analog interfaces including the DAC and ADCs have to work properly By drawing monitor signals from critical checkpoints of the system we can test the systems integrity from upstream to downstream and convince ourselves that the system is indeed doing what it is supposed to 8 3 1 Testing procedure Mode Switches Piezo Drive LE Modulation Signal ADC DAC c Monitor 1 Monitor 2 Transmission Input Y O l Ne a tons N am T or o gt eS e e Current Drive Figure 44 Signals in the lock in amplifier unit 1 Connect the analog modulation output to the system input In this configuration the system multiplies a known signal with its phase shifted counterpart 2 Connect the analog modul

User manual for FPGA laser lock

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents