NSF Award
9960199
This Phase I Small Business Innovation Research project aims to develop the automatic setup and control procedures necessary to commercialize its ultra-wide bandwidth transient digitizer product. The innovative use of superconductive properties, together with a novel error-correcting circuit architecture, results in the potential for the highest performance of any digitizer based on analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). The HYPRES transient digitizer already provides bandwidth performance unsurpassed by any other ADC-based digitizer. However, perhaps the most important component for commercialization still needs to be implemented: the setup and control electronics that transform the digitizer from a laboratory tool to a commercial instrument. During Phase I, HYPRES will fabricate and measure digitizer chips. The necessary procedures and algorithms for setting up and optimizing chip performance will be determined and codified. A control unit will be designed, to be implemented in Phase II using VXI-standard electronics and a LabViewTM interface.<br/> The transient digitizer is useful for measuring the bunch profile of accelerator beams such as the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). This instrument is also useful for both laser and target diagnostic work at the National Ignition Facility (NIF).
