A hierarchically pipelined data acquisition system for single-photon avalanche diode array

A hierarchically pipelined data acquisition system for single-photon avalanche diode array

Trimananda, R.

Gersbach, M. (mentor)
Charbon, E. (mentor)

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

CAS

2009-08-31

SinglePhotonAvalancheDiode(SPAD)is a typeof highly sensitive diode that can detect single photons. It is, there fore, useful for certain applications that need photons ensing capability. A system, consisting of 32x32 SPAD array, with its controller along side on Virtex-IIProFPGA on board, has been being developed and tested to evince its reliability and robustness. It utilizes the SPAD array for photon counting( time-uncorrelated) and measuring the arrival times of single photons (time-correlated), which implies fast datarate, and, thus, fast data acquisition. Alas, as it was ?rst developed without any adequate data acquisition capability to cope with the potential of the SPAD, it is then considered important to create one. This thesis report presents a design of a system that is able to perform a robust data acquisition as it works together with the SPAD array and its controller. It has been implemented in Verilog HDL, simulated, synthesized, and tested on the FPGA. Apart from this ?rmware itself, a set of simple DLL functions has been written to control it. Additionally, a particular software is also created based on the DLL functions to provide a standard interface for the users, while the functions also work with many applications, e.g. MATLAB. The entire system has been tested, pro?led, characterized, and even used in some real experiments. In terms of speed and robustness, it shows a great advancement for the SPAD array data acquisition.

SPAD

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:fac9915f-2aab-4200-94b2-46669371b88d

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2009 R. Trimananda