The ePix100A camera is a 0.5 megapixel (704 x 768 pixels) camera for low noise x-ray detection applications requiring high spatial and spectral resolution. The camera is built around a hybrid pixel detector consisting of 4 ePix100a ASICs ip-chip bonded to one sensor. The pixels are 50 μm x 50 μm (active sensor size ~ 35:4mm x 38:6 mm), with a noise of ~ 180 eV rms, a range of 100 8 keV photons, and a current frame rate of 240 Hz (with an upgrade path towards ~ 10 kHz). This performance leads to a camera combining a high dynamic range, high signal to noise ratio, high speed and excellent linearity and spectroscopic performance. While the ePix100A ASIC has been developed for pulsed source applications (e.g., free-electron lasers), it performs well with more common sources (e.g., x-ray tubes, synchrotron radiation). Several cameras have been produced and characterized and the results are reported here, along with x-ray imaging applications demonstrating the camera performance.
The paper describes a new generation of high performance, remote control, CCD cameras designed for astronomical applications. A completely new camera PCB was designed, manufactured, tested and commissioned. The CCD chip was positioned in a different way than previously resulting in better performance of the astronomical video data acquisition system. The camera was built using a low-noise, 4Mpixel CCD circuit by STA. The electronic circuit of the camera is highly parameterized and reconfigurable, as well as modular in comparison with the solution of first generation, due to application of open software solutions and FPGA circuit, Altera Cyclone EP1C6. New algorithms were implemented into the FPGA chip. There were used the following advanced electronic circuit in the camera system: microcontroller CY7C68013a (core 8051) by Cypress, image processor AD9826 by Analog Devices, GigEth interface RTL8169s by Realtec, memory SDRAM AT45DB642 by Atmel, CPU typr microprocessor ARM926EJ-S AT91SAM9260 by ARM and Atmel. Software solutions for the camera and its remote control, as well as image data acquisition are based only on the open source platform. There were used the following image interfaces ISI and API V4L2, data bus AMBA, AHB, INDI protocol. The camera will be replicated in 20 pieces and is designed for continuous on-line, wide angle observations of the sky in the research program Pi-of-the-Sky.
The concept of the Altera Nios II embedded processor implementation inside Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
of the CCD camera for the "Pi of the Sky" experiment is presented. The digital board of the CCD camera, its most
important components, current implementation of firmware (VHDL) inside the FPGA and the role of external 8051
microcontroller is briefly described. The main goal of the presented work is to get rid of the external microcontroller and
to design new system with Nios II processor built inside FPGA chip. Constraints for implementing the design into the
existing camera boards are discussed. New possibilities offered by a larger FPGA for next generation of cameras are
considered.
KEYWORDS: Data acquisition, Data communications, Field programmable gate arrays, Telecommunications, Prototyping, C++, Physics, Internet, Control systems, Data centers
This paper describes an implementation of the communication layer based on remote procedure calling ONC RPC and presents the first prototype of hardware data protection module for control and data acquisition module being developed by the ELHEP Group for the DESY research center in Hamburg. This control and DAQ module is designed for the SIMCON module (SIMulator and CONtroller) aimed to steer the nine-cell super conducting niobium resonators built and produced for TESLA and X-FEL projects. Solutions described here will allow to establish safe connections from any place in the world and control physics experiments via Internet network.
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