Home

User Manual - Cronologic

1. cronologic GmbH amp Co KG HPT DCs PCI JahnstraBe 49 Time to Digital Converter 60318 Frankfurt with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Features 8 NIM compatible inputs on LEMO con nectors with 25ps bin size m 1 NIM compatible input on LEMO con nector with 12 8ns bin size m 12 LVCMOS inputs on SUB D connec tor with 12 8ns bin size m typical deadtime between multiple hits on one channel lt 5 ns unlimited number of hits per trigger no dead time due to readout new data is acquired during readout 4M Hits s readout rate 419us range w trigger logic enabled 2h range without trigger logic can be extended by software m adjustable trigger window size position of trigger incl common start and common stop mode easy to use windows driver on board storage for calibration data support for up to three event synchronized boards 5V 32 bit 33MHz PCI target device Intended Use Typical applications for a HPTDC8 PCI include atomic physics experiments e g momentum imag ing time of flight spectroscopy mass spectroscopy and LIDAR The HPTDC8 PCI may not be used for medical applications except for research imaging systems e medical devices used solely as diagnostic tools e in military devices e in conjunction with nuclear materials related to defense or power systems e for space applications with the exception of fundamental research The HPTDC8 P
2. Only meaningful in state PAUSED Throws an exception if called in state RUNNING Has no effect in other states cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 17 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 TDCInfo GetTDCInfo int index HPTDCInfo GetTDCInfo int index Get the information on TDC card number index Throws an exception if called in state UNINITIALIZED Returns an object that contains the following data class TDCInfo class HPTDCInfo int index int channelStart int channelCount int highResChannelCount int highResChannelStart int lowResChannelCount int lowResChannelStart double resolution DWORD serialNumber int version int fifoSize int INLCorrection in net intl INLCorrection unsigned short DNLData in net short DNLData bool flashValid int bufferSize unsigned char boardConfiguration index The index of this board e g O for the first board channelStart The number of the card s first channel as initialized by the driver For example if two HPTDC8 PCI card s are present the second card s channel numbers are usually 21 to 41 That card s first channel is therefore channel number 21 channelCount Total number of channels HighResChannelCount Number of channels with high resolution highResChannelStart Number of first channel with high resolution lowResChannelCount Number of channels with
3. manager Init System Collections Generic args new HPTDCManager manager ReadConfigFile myexperiment cfg manager Start catch HPTDCException e System Console WriteLine e Message return int amountToRead 1000000 HPTDCHit buffer StreamWriter newFile while amountToRead gt 0 int count new HPTDCHit 2000 new StreamWriter myexperiment csv manager ReadHPTDCHit buffer for int i 0 i lt count amp amp i lt amountToRead i newFile Write buffer i channel newFile Write buffer i type newFile WriteLine buffer i time amountToRead count newFile Close manager Stop manager CleanUp G cronologic GmbH amp Co KG HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Lowres Connector Pinout Signal Pin Number Signal 3 3V 1 2 reserved GND 3 4 reserved GND 5 6 CH11 GND 7 8 CH12 GND 9 10 CH13 GND 11 12 CH14 2 5V 13 14 CH1i5 GND 15 16 CH16 GND 17 18 CH17 GND 19 20 CH18 GND 21 22 CH19 GND 23 24 CH20 5V 25 26 not connected HPTDC MDS lowres connector pinout cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 25 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Electrical Character
4. 0 INL 0 int chan 0 1023 From Lookup table for INL correction to nel PROM INL 1023 UseClock80 bool global false true true MMxXEnable bool global false true true Use 64 bit reads in non dma mode DMAEnable bool global false true true Copy data using direct memory ac cess Should remain true for drivers 3 0 1 and newer SSEEnable bool global false true false Use 128 bit reads in non dma mode ClockDelayPattern int board 0 Oxffff 0x0800 don t change Deprecated or Obsolete Parameters These parameters have been valid in old versions of the driver but should not be used anymore name type scope min max default description SoftwareSync TDC8Sync SyncValidation Channel SimulateExter nalClock cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 12 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Multiple boards Unique channel numbers are assigned to each board The second board will usually start with chan nel number 21 and the third one with channel number 42 A serial number of the type X Y is print ed on every TDC card see Figure 4 X denotes the year of production minus 2000 Y is an integer greater than zero The card with the lowest number is initialized as the first board the one with the next higher number as the second and the board with the highest number is
5. 50 Q VTT termination voltage 0 V tTpw pulse width 30 3000 ns tTdead pulse seperation 30 Clock Input AC coupled input with 50Q thievenin termination after the capacitor Symbol Parameter Min Typ Max Units Vex input common mode voltage 4 7 V Vc input amplitude peak to peak 0 8 3 3 V Zc input impedance 50 Q tc clock period 12 5 12 8 13 1 ns duty cycle 45 50 55 1 Deviation from the nominal period will scale measurement results cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 27 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Lowres Inputs DC coupled CMOS compatible inputs with parallel termination Symbol Parameter Min Typ Max Units Vin input high level 2 3 3 V Vin input low level 0 0 8 V VitH switching threshold 1 65 V Vir termination voltage 0 V VL input impedance 100 Q TDC8 Sync Input DC coupled CMOS compatible inputs with parallel termination Symbol Parameter Min Typ Max Units Vsin input high level 2 3 3 V Vsi Input low level 0 0 8 V VstH switching threshold 1 65 V Vst termination voltage 0 V Zs input impedance 1000 Q cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 28 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3
6. detector They might also be integrated with the detector The HPTDC8 PCI and HPTDC MDS are designed to comply with DIN EN 61326 1 when operated on a PCI compliant main board housed in a properly shielded enclosure When operated in a closed standard compliant PC enclosure the device does not pose any hazards as defined by EN 61010 1 Radiated emissions noise immunity and safety highly depend on the quality of the enclosure It is the responsibility of the system integrator to ensure that the assembled system is compliant to applicable standards of the country that the system is operated in especially with regards to user safety and electromagnetic interference Compliance was only tested for attached cables shorter than 3m The HPTDC contains up to 1g of lead It is the responsibility of the system integrator to check whether the resulting system will comply to or is exempt from ROHS regulations such as EU direc tive 2002 95 EG Recycling Cronologic is registered with the Stiftung Elektro Altgerate Register as a manufacturer of elec tronic systems with Registration ID DE 77895909 The HPTC belongs to category 9 berwachungs und Kontrollinstrumente f r ausschlie lich gewerblich Nutzung The last owner of a HPTDC must recycle or treat the board in compliance with 11 and 12 of the german ElektroG or return it to cronologic cronologic GmbH amp Co KG Jahnstrake 49 D 60318 Frankfurt Contact and Updates Driver updat
7. edge global falling Trigger on falling or rising edge TriggerChannel int board 0 63 0 Which channel to use as a trigger OutputLevel bool board false true false Keep track of signal levels ExternalClock bool global false true false Use external clock source VHR bool global false true true Enables the TDC s very high resolu tion mode with a bin size of 25ps If disable the bin size is set to 100ps increasing the TDC s data through put by a factor of 4 thus increase ing lossfree hit rates See page 30 UseINL bool global false true true Use INL correction UseFineINL bool global false true false Use better INL correction with ReadTDCHit Disables coarse INL correction Should not be set when using Read BufferSize int global 16 27 23 Number of bits in the number of hits in the buffer 23 Bits provides a buf fer of 8MHits Prescaler int channel 1 32 1 For channels 9 to 14 report only one out of N edges 10 cronologic GmbH amp Co KG Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution User Manual Grouping Parameters configurable by the User cronologic GmbH amp Co KG name type scope min max default description OutputLevel bool board false true false Keep track of signal levels GroupingEnable bool global false true true Enable grouping AllowOverlap bool global false true false If a hit fal
8. low resolution lowResChannelStart Number of first channel with low resolution resolution The TDC card s bin size of the high resolution channels This value can be different for external and internal clocking The structure should be updated when changing this parameter cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 18 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 serialNumber The card s unique serial number The highest byte denotes the year of production minus 2000 the 3 lower bytes a serial number version The lowest byte describes the board revision the next higher byte the firmware revision fifoSize The size of the on board PCI FIFO in data words INLCorrection Pointer to an array containing the current INL correction table The array has a size of 8 x 1024 entries starting with channel 0 value 0 followed by channel 0 value 1 etc DNLData Pointer to an array containing the bin sizes before INL correction These are relative sizes that must be normalized to the sum of values for each channel flashvalid Set to true if valid calibration flash content has been detected bufferSize Size of the of the software buffer in hits boardConfiguration Differentiates various options in the board assembly int GetState int GetState Returns the current state of the TDCManager const static int STATE_UNINITIALIZED 0 const static int STATE_
9. the third board For example three cards with the numbers 6 7 7 11 and 6 12 are installed The first card with chan nel numbers 0 to 20 is the one with number 6 7 the second card channels 21 to 41 is the one with serial number 6 12 and the third card channels 42 to 62 is card 7 11 Figure 4 The card s serial number located on the PCI interface chip The first digit denotes the year of production the second is a serial number that is unique within that year Multiple boards with external clock reference This is the preferred mode of operation when using multiple boards a common clock signal is con nected to the clock input of each board This signal must have a frequency of 78 125MHz In this case all acquisition modes described above are supported and the additional measurement error described above is avoided Using an external clock a trigger signal needs to be connected to one TDC board only This must be the first board channels 0 to 20 In order to enable the external clock source the configuration parameter ExternalClock needs to be set to true The resolution is reported as 25 00000 ps when external clocking is selected relying on the exter nal clock having the correct frequency cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 13 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Calibration There are multiple levels of calibration firstly fo
10. 6 0 Time Measurement Parameters up to 7 x Symbol Parameter Min Typ Max nominal bin size 25 stability over temperature 0 C to 85 C 20 stability over temperature 20 C to 70 C aging first year 5 aging thereafter 2 initial frequency inaccuracy peak to peak jitter 25 differential nonlinearity 25 25 25 25 integral nonlinearity 25 25 25 25 crosstalk 7 aggressors 150 pf 150 skew between channels 2 4 Pf aa 1 Not tested cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 29 Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Data Rate In order to guarantee that absolutely no hits are lost during data acquisition the following hit counts must not be exceeded In many cases exceeding these values will result only in a small amount of lost hits depending on the pattern of the arriving hits HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution User Manual Symbol Scope Number of Timeframe Hits Hcrit highres channel 1 10ns Hcritza highres channel 2 400ns 25ps resolution Hcrit2p highres channel 2 100ns 100ps resolution Hcritsa highres channel 4 400ns 25ps resolution Hcritsp highres channel 4 100ns 100ps resolution Hcrit highres channel pair 256 25us Hcrit all highres channels 512 8us Lerit lowres channel 1 30ns Lcrit2 lowres channel 16 800ns Lcrits all channe
11. Both groups ranges are truncated This behavior is enabled using the configuration parameter AllowOverlap false Figure 3 bottom shows the case of overlapping groups AllowOverlap true Hits inside the overlapping region of both groups are assigned to each group the timing value is calculated with respect to the corresponding trigger time If grouping is disabled the timing value for a hit is an unsigned integer relative to the last rollover marker A group in the data stream ends with the beginning of a new group or with a rollover marker If grouping and rollovers are enabled there is a rollover marker immediately preceding each group marker even if two consecutive groups start in the same frame As described before a trigger deadtime can be set in order to suppress consecutive triggers in the chosen timing interval This can be used to avoid overlapping groups or create an intentional dead time to remove unwanted data from the data stream Signal Level Information If grouping of data is enabled input transitions that occur outside a group are not recorded If the signal has no transition within the group the level of the signal is unknown Therefore the signal levels can be output at the beginning of each group This feature can be enabled individually for each board If multiple TDCs are used the level information is not guaranteed to appear directly at the begin ning of a group for all TDCs Level information for each board is
12. CI may not be used for military purposes If the HPTDC8 PCI is sold the above restrictions must be incorporated in any resale contract cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 1 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Concepts The HPTDC8 PCI continuously records the digital waveforms on its inputs similar to a logic analyzer with an accuracy of up to 25ps Inputs The board has nine AC coupled inputs on LEMO series 00 coax connectors compatible to the NIM signaling standard Eight of these are high resolution inputs and one is a low resolution input Fur thermore it has twelve DC coupled low resolution inputs for 3 3V LVCMOS signals LVTTL compati ble The NIM inputs are terminated with 50 Ohms to ground A current of 16mA equivalent to an input voltage of 800mV is identified as a logic 1 and no current equivalent to an input voltage of OV is identified as a logic 0 The LVCMOS inputs identify voltages above 2V as logic 1 and voltages below 0 8V as logic 0 The high resolution inputs have a bin size of 25ps the low resolution inputs have a bin size of 12 8ns In order to simplify analysis high and low resolution inputs use the same data formats The time for all channels is stored as integer multiples of a unit time usually 25ps Transitions of the input signals are called hits The data acquisition can be limited to rising or fall ing sig
13. NOT_CONFIGURED 1 const static int STATE_CONFIGURED 2 const static int STATE_RUNNING 3 const static int STATE_PAUSED 4 const static int STATE_SHUTDOWN 5 long long GetTDCStatusRegister long GetTDCStatusRegister Returns a 64 bit number that can be sent to the manufacturer for debugging purposes cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 19 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Readout int Read HIT out int size int Read int buffer Copy TDC data into buffer of size count If grouping is enabled one group is read Otherwise all available data up to the size of the buffer is read The number of data words that were read is re turned as an integer If grouping is enabled and no group is found within a certain time interval Read returns 0 The data returned hast the format described earlier in this document To get the absolute time multiply the integer values reported by resolution as specified in the TDCInfo structure int ReadTDCHit TDCHit buffer int length int ReadHPTDCHit HPTDCHit buffer Copy TDC data into buffer of size count The number of data words that were read is returned as an integer All available data up to the size of the buffer is read Uses a data format that is easier to use and provides a better DNL and INL than Read Uses more memory and CPU cycles Does not support grouping Output data is sorted b
14. a acquisi tion scenario in triggered mode The size of the acquisition window is set by the configuration pa rameters GroupRangeStart and GroupRangeEnd The falling edge of the trigger signal is used TriggerEdge falling Trigger Data GroupRangeStart l GroupRangeEnd Figure 2 Data acquisition in triggered mode Hits within the group s range green are acquired hits outside that range red are rejected Data within a group has timing values relative to the trigger event s time Hits can be assigned to multiple groups If a new trigger event occurs inside the range of a group one of three behaviors cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 3 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 can be selected 1 No trigger is issued and the trigger event is recorded as a hit on the trigger channel if data tak ing for this channel is enabled 2 A new trigger is issued the previous group is ended and data in the overlapping range is as signed to the new group 3 A new trigger is issued and data in the overlapping range are assigned to both groups possibly including the trigger event The range of a group is limited to 419 4us Figure 3 displays the three types of behavior On top a trigger is suppressed using the configura tion parameter TriggerDeadTime In the middle of Figure 3 a group is ended by a consecutive trigger A new group is started
15. ase the driver will automatically configure the TDC the card using the parameters set by the user and run the data acquisition As configuring the TDC card takes up to 1 second a second way of starting the data acquisition is implemented as well by using the Reconfigure the TDC card is configured and then ready for data acquisition state Configured in Fig XXX A Start command will now start data acquisition instantaneously This path is intended for users who need a low latency between an intended start and the real start of the data acquisition The command Pause will stop the data acquisition but leave the TDC card fully configured Being in the Pause state a Continue will immediately restart the data acquisition If the user intends to change some of the TDC s parameters or to clear the buffers a Stop command is necessary taking the driver back to the state Configured If the parameters remain unchanged a Start will imme diately restart the data acquisition By changing parameters the driver returns to the Not Config ured state a restart from that state will take longer as he TDC card needs to be reconfigured be fore the data acquisition is invoked The current state can be queried with the getState method cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 21 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 ReadcConfigFile SetParameter ReadcConfigFile INIT SetParamet
16. dConfigFile const char filename bool ReadConfigFile string filenameManaged Read in a configuration file Can only be called if the TDC is stopped states 0 1 and 2 Throws an exception otherwise Can also throw exceptions generated while opening or reading the file Returns true if successful false if there was an error void Reconfigure void Reconfigure Writes configuration data to the device Use after configuration has been changed This operation is slow Can only be called if the TDC is stopped states 0 1 and 2 Throws an exception otherwise Throws an exception if a parameters cannot be parsed Reflection const char GetParameter const char parameter String GetParameter string parameterManaged Get the value of a parameter If the parameter does not exist or has not been set an empty string is returned const char GetParameterNames int amp count string GetParameterNames Get the names of all parameters that are set The c Version returns the number of elements in the array in the count variable int GetDriverVersion int GetDriverVersion The lowest three bytes returned are the three digits of the driver Version cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 16 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Control void Start void Start Configure all TDCs with the parameters set by the methods described in th
17. e previous section and start all TDCs This method can require several milliseconds to complete when called from state NOT_CONFIGURED To precisely time the start of the data acquisition call reconfigure first If called from state NOT_CONFIGURED exceptions thrown from reconfigure can occur Also throws an exception if called from state UNINITIALIZED void Stop void Stop Stop taking data and turn off TDCs The state of the hardware and software queues is undefined af ter this operation No additional data should be read out To get all data in the queues call Pause and empty the buffers before calling this method The TDC is put into a low power state that can only be recovered by a Start operation Throws an exception if called in states UNINITIALIZED or SHUTDOWN void Pause void Pause Stop taking data Data already in the hardware and software buffers is left intact and can be read out The TDC hardware is kept in a state that allows to resume data acquisition immediately Frame counters continue to count Throws an exception when called from a state other then PAUSED or RUNNING void Continue void Continue Quickly continue taking data after a Pause Buffers are left intact and frame counters are left un altered It is legal to use Start to resume operation instead Throws an exception when called from a state other then PAUSED or RUNNING void ClearBuffer void ClearBuffer Clears all buffers
18. er Stop lt Reconfigure Start Continue Pause Page AO Figure 5 The driver s state machine as seen by the user cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 22 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmwa re 7 Driver v3 6 0 C 25ps Code Example mode include tdcmanager h include lt string gt include lt list gt include lt fstream gt int main int argc char argv TDCManager manager 0x1A13 0x0001 try manager Init manager ReadConfigFile myexperiment cfg manager Start catch TDCConfigException amp e return 1 int amountToRead 1000000 HIT buffer 2000 ofstream of test dat ios out ios binary while amountToRead gt 0 int count manager Read buffer 2000 for int i 0 i lt count amp amp i lt amountToRead i of write const char buffer i sizeof HIT amountToRead count manager Stop manager CleanUp return 0 cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 23 Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution User Manual C Code Example ips mode cronologic System IO System using using using using using using System Ling System Text namespace application class Program static void Main string HPTDCManager manager try
19. es can be downloaded from the HPTDC product page at http www cronologic de For technical questions please send an E Mail to hptdc cronologic de cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 31
20. eter appears multiple times in a set of configuration files the last occurrence is used Lines starting with a sharp are comments and are ignored by the driver Anything behind a double slash to the end of a line is treated as a comment There may be any number of empty lines All other lines consist of a parameter name and a value Both values and parameter names are case insensitive Values Values can have different types as follows If no value is specified a default value is loaded from the on board PROM Boolean A value that is either true or false The values 1 t true on enable and enabled are rec ognized as true The values O f false off disable and disabled are recognized as false Integer Any integer in decimal base such es 5 023 or 1 Time A floating point number in C notation such as 5 5 2 1 7e 3 followed by a time unit Allowed units are PS2 ms us us ns ps and fs Channel mask A value of this type defines a set of channels that the parameter applies to The format is a list of ranges or individual channels separated by commas A range consists of a lower and upper channel separated by a minus The lower and upper bound are included in the range Examples are 1 or 7 9 14 or 1 4 15 To include all channels use 0 20 To disable all cha
21. ev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Rollover 31 24 23 0 00010000 upper 24 bits of time stamp The time between two rollovers is called a frame Level information 31 27 26 21 20 0 00011 n Level At the beginning of a group the levels of the input signals can optionally be output One word con tains the levels of 21 inputs beginning at channel n Resolution 31 24 23 0 00100000 bin size in fs 25000 This word should be added once at the beginning of each output file to describe the size of a timing bin Currently there exist two types of TDCs Most have 25 00000ps resolution and starting with serial number 9 50 some TDCs have 25 117348ps resolution cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 7 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Configuration File TDC FPGA and the driver software are configured by text based configuration files that can also contain calibration data Any number of configuration files can be read in with the newer configuration overriding the older ones This allows to have configuration files that each describe individual boards experiment set ups and readout situations and combine them as desired Configuration files consist of independent lines that can appear in any order Each line configures zero or one parameter If the same param
22. guaranteed to appear before the first signal transition of that board Any errors that might cause hits to be lost can cause incorrect level information Once there is a another hit received on a channel the level information will be correct again cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 4 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 TriggerDeadTime Trigger E Data GroupRangeStart GroupRangeEnd Group1 Group2 Trigger i En GroupRangeStart GroupRangeEnd GroupRangeStart GroupRangeEnd Group1 Group2 i E A Tigger p Data GroupRangeStart GroupRangeEnd GroupRangeStart GroupRangeEnd Figure 3 The three different types of grouping described in the text cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 5 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Data Format The readout data is a stream of 32 bit words in little endian byte order Each word represents a signal transition on an input or a special marker Falling transition 31 30 29 24 23 0 10 channel transition time The transition time is a 24 bit signed integer when inside a group or an unsigned integer otherwise Rising transition 31 30 29 24 23 0 11 channel transition time The transition time is a 24 bit signed integer when inside a group or a
23. istics Environmental Conditions The inboard is designed to be operated under the following conditions Symbol Parameter Min Typ Max Units T Ambient Temperature 5 50 2C RH relative humidity at 31 C 30 70 Power Supply Symbol Parameter Min Typ Max Units I PCI 5V rail power consumption 2 5 A VCC PCI 5V rail power supply 4 75 5 5 25 V other PCI power supply rails not connected Hi Res Inputs AC coupled NIM compatible inputs with parallel termination The idle level is high signals are given by negative pulses Symbol Parameter Min Typ Max Units Voc DC input voltage 10 10 V AVi AC Pulse low level relative to DC level 1 5 0 5 V AVm AC switching threshold relative to DC level 0 34 0 24 0 14 V Vr termination voltage 0 V Z input impedance 50 Q tpw pulse width 5 3000 ns tdead dead time after edge 5 10 ns cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 26 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Trigger Input AC coupled NIM compatible input with parallel termination The idle level is high signals are given by negative pulses VTDC DC input voltage 10 10 V AVTIL AC pulse low level relative to DC level 1 5 0 5 V AVTTH AC Switching threshold relative to DC level 0 38 V ZT input impedance
24. ls 2000 500us 1 Hits lost as these constraints are not met cannot be detected by hardware 2 Hits lost due to these constraints are reported as errors in the datastream The exact num ber of lost hits cannot be detected 3 Hits lost due to these constraints are reported with the exact number of lost hits The num ber of lost hits is reported separately for trigger channels 4 This criterion applies when rising edge is enabled for at least one hires channel and falling edge is enable for at least one hires channel This might be the same or a different chan nel Up to driver version 3 0 0 inclusive this rule included lores channels 5 This relaxed criterion applies when no hires channels uses rising edges or no hires channels uses falling edges Up to driver version 3 0 0 inclusive this rule included lores channels cronologic GmbH amp Co KG HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 System Integration The devices are not ready to use as delivered by cronologic It requires the development of special ized software to fulfill the application of the end user The device is provided to system integrators to be built into measurement systems that are distributed to end users These systems usually consist of a the HPTDC a main board a case application software and possible additional electron ics to attach the system to some type of
25. ls within multiple groups copy it to all groups or just to the last one TriggerDead time global 0 1s 100ms_ Time during which no new triggers Time are accepted after a trigger GroupRangeS time global 209 7us 0 Smallest time value relative to tart 209 7us group marker to be included in group Set negative for common stop GroupRangeEnd time global 7 209 7us 209 7y First time value relative to group 209 7us S marker not to be included in group Set positive for common start OutputRollovers bool global false true true Include rollover markers in the data format Rollovers can only be dis abled if grouping is enabled GroupTimeout time global 0 ih 200ms When using multiple boards the driver assumes that after this time interval all data from an event has arrived in system memory Ignored for single board setups OutputLevel bool board false true false Keep track of signal levels 11 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Other Parameters These parameters should usually be kept at their default values They may be used for debugging or testing or in special usage cases name type scope min max default description DilTapAdjust 0 int board 0 7 From Lookup table for DNL correction 5 PROM DilTapAdjust 31 DelayTap 0 int board 0 7 From Calibrate very high resolution clock to PROM DelayTap 3 7 7 0
26. n be determined by con necting a pulse per second PPS signal from a frequency normal such as a GPS receiver to one of the inputs and measure the average distance of the pulses cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 14 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Programming Interface The driver API defines the following methods Both the C and the C syntax is shown The C version can be used in any language that supports the net platform such as VisualBasic J or managed C Exceptions Many methods in the API throw exceptions when an error occurs They all have the type TDCCon figException which is defined as class TDCConfigException public a const char errorString The error string contains additional information about the nature of the exception The application developer can choose to catch the exception and continue with program execution Optionally the error string could be logged or presented to the user If the exception is not caught the application will be terminated Startup and cleanup void Init void Init Should be called once before using the TDCManager Init detects all present TDC devices ac quires all available information on the those devices and maps the address space for PCI access It also reads the global cfg configuration file if present in the current directory Can throw all exceptions that a
27. n unsigned integer otherwise Error with channel information 31 30 29 24 23 16 15 0 01 channel error count Error numbers below 128 are lost hits If the bit with weight 64 is set and multiple boards are present applications should reset the data acquisition if the trigger channel is in the group the error occurred in Any errors that might cause hits to be lost can cause incorrect level information Once there is a another hit received on a channel the level information will be correct again Error Number Source Description 0 FPGA hires data lost due to fpga fifo overflow 16 SOFT data lost due to software buffer overflow 32 FPGA lores data lost due to fpga fifo overflow 96 FPGA triggers lost due to fpga fifo overflow 112 SOFT trigger lost due to software buffer overflow 160 TDC TDC chip error possibly hit lost 128 FPGA unknown error should occur only for prototype 129 FPGA FPGA fifo empty 255 SOFT boards might be out of sync user should reset the board Group 31 28 27 24 23 0 0000 Id trigger time The time values of the following hits should be added to the trigger time to obtain the absolute time of the transition The id currently is always O but could be used to identify multiple trigger conditions in future versions cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 6 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution R
28. nal transitions Channels can be enabled individually The high resolution channels are num bered 0 to 7 the optional DC coupled low resolution channels are numbered 9 to 20 and the single AC coupled low resolution channel has channel number 8 The AC coupling of the front panel inputs is set up for short negative pulses The width of a pulse must be between 5ns and 3ps to match parameter tpw TDC8 channel 0 O Sue O aa EN qang 25V BSS 3 3V channel 2 channel 3 channel 4 TDC Sl nee N 2 channel 5 y T PCI I O 2 channel 6 FIFO PROM channel 7 onboard s O ext CLK cK N 2 5V channel 8 J Poo Figure 1 The HPTDC8 PCI card The high resolution channels 0 7 and the low resolution NIM chan nel 8 are located on the left Low resolution channels 9 20 are connected to the 26 pin ribbon ca ble connector on the right side The 10 pin ribbon cable connector at the top is used to connect and synchronize several HPTDC8 PCI cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 2 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Rollover The data format for a hit contains 24 bits of timing information which is sufficient for a 419us time interval at 25ps resolution The HPTDC8 PCI is collecting data continuously Wheneve
29. nnels use no or none Edge An input transition The value falling denotes a transition from a higher electrical potential to a lower potential rising denotes the opposite transition cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 8 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 Parameters Parameters are named with a case insensitive string of alphabetic characters Array parameters are followed by and an index If multiple TDCs are present most parameter names can be followed by and a number indicat ing for which TDC the parameter shall be set Otherwise the parameter is set for all TDCs Number ing of TDC boards starts with 0 Additionally for parameters that can be set channel wise the name can be followed by and a number to indicate for which channel the parameter shall apply Otherwise the parameter is ap plied for all channels cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 9 Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution User Manual General Parameters configurable by the User name type scope min max default description RisingEnable mask channel none Record 0 to 1 transitions for these channels FallingEnable mask channel 0 63 Record 1 to 0 transitions for these channels TriggerEdge
30. r the 24 bit counter rolls over a rollover marker is inserted into the data stream with an additional 24 bits for the time measurement thus allowing measurements of up to 2h The time interval between two rollovers is called a frame If there is no hit between two consecutive rollover markers only the last marker appears in the output However it is guaranteed that that at least one rollover is output before the 48 bit counter overflows Using this information measurements with infinite range can be performed if grouping is disabled The rollover markers can optionally be suppressed by the driver if grouping is enabled in order to simplify the data format and reduce the data rate for applications that do not need timing informa tion that spans multiple groups Without grouping enabled rollovers are always output Trigger An arbitrary input channel can be selected as trigger input A trigger condition occurs for a signal transition on that input The time of the trigger condition can be used to group the input data see below Triggers can be rearmed automatically after a programmable delay after the group associated with the trigger is finished Groups Hits can be merged to groups or events in HEP nomenclature A group will contain hits that oc curred within a certain time interval relative to a trigger Both the start and end point of the inter val can be configured within a range of 209 7us to 209 7us Figure 2 shows a typical dat
31. r the very high resolution mode of the HPTDC8 PCI the bin size for the lower two bits of measurement can be adjusted using delay taps inside the TDC Secondly the INL of the data can be corrected using a table lookup in the driver software It is an option to use a different bin size after table lookup than before table lookup For the table lookup the last ten bits of each timing value are used to index a table that contains 1024 entries for each channel with the last bits of the corrected measurement The boards are delivered with calibration data stored in an onboard flash PROM The driver uses this data by default Users can easily create their own calibration data and feed it to the driver or even program new data to the onboard prom When using the Read method data is return with 25ps quantization with both corrections applied When using the ReadTDCHits method data is returned with 1ps quantization The average bin size will still be 25ps but the information about the individual bin sizes can be preserved To use this feature set the useFineINL property to true The reference frequency is determined by a temperature compensated crystal oscillator with the specifications listed on page 29 The absolute frequency error is dominated by the initial accuracy and aging of the oscillator Applications that have stringent requirements for the absolute size of longer intervals might want to compensate for this error The frequency ca
32. re related to parsing the configuration file void CleanUp void Cleanup Should be called once before exiting the program int GetTDCCount int GetTDCCount Returns the number of HPTDC boards found in the system From 0 to 3 Configuration The TDC and readout configuration is manipulated via a set of methods The parameters do not take effect before the Reconfigure method is called If a parameter is set multiple times the last value is used cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 15 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 bool SetParameter const char config bool SetParameter string config managed bool ReadConfigString const char parameter bool ReadConfigString string configManaged Read in a string with the syntax of a configuration file line as described in the previous section The string might contain multiple lines Can only be called if the TDC is stopped states 0 1 and 2 Throws an exception otherwise Returns false if there were illegal parameters or syntax errors True otherwise bool SetParameter const char property const char value bool SetParameter string propManaged string valueManaged Set the value of a parameter identified by the parameter name Can only be called if the TDC is stopped states 0 1 and 2 Throws an exception otherwise Returns true if successful false if there was an error bool Rea
33. y timestamp The data returned uses a structure that obsoletes rollovers Also times are reported in multiples of one picosecond independently of the TDCs native resolution A more fine grained INL correction is used in this mode slightly reduce the measurement error of the TDC bin is auxilliary information that can be ignored in normal operation struct TDCHit public const static int FALLING 0 const static int RISING 1 const static int TDC_ERROR 2 long long time unsigned char channel unsigned char type unsigned short bin F If type is set to 2 an error word in the format described on page 6 will be copied into the lower 32 bits of time TDC Driver State Machine A sketch of the user view of the driver s architecture is shown in Fig XXX After starting the PC the driver will wait in the state Idle until the user invokes an Init command The Init command loads the parameters given in the standard configuration file global cfg to the driver s registers At this point depicted in Fig XXX by the state Not configured the TDC card itself is not yet config ured The user can now change any parameter by using the functions ReadConfigFile or SetParam cronologic GmbH amp Co KG 20 HPTDC8 PCI Time to Digital Converter with 25ps Resolution Rev 3 6 0 as of 2015 11 26 User Manual Firmware 7 Driver v3 6 0 eter The user may now invoke a Start command in order to start acquiring data In this c

User Manual - Cronologic

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents