No Arabic abstract
I review the transfer of technology from accelerator-based equipment to space-borne astroparticle detectors. Requirements for detection, identification and measurement of ions, electrons and photons in space are recalled. The additional requirements and restrictions imposed by the launch process in manned and unmanned space flight, as well as by the hostile environment in orbit, are analyzed. Technology readiness criteria and risk mitigation strategies are reviewed. Recent examples are given of missions and instruments in orbit, under construction or in the planning phase.
The soft error rate (SER) of integrated circuits (ICs) operating in space environment may vary by several orders of magnitude due to the variable intensity of radiation exposure. To ensure the radiation hardness without compromising the system performance, it is necessary to implement the dynamic hardening mechanisms which can be activated under the critical radiation exposure. Such operating scenario requires the real-time detection of energetic particles responsible for the soft errors. Although numerous particle detection solutions have been reported, very few works address the on-chip particle detectors suited for the self-adaptive fault tolerant microprocessor systems for space missions. This work reviews the state-of-the-art particle detectors, with emphasis on two solutions for the self-adaptive systems: particle detector based on embedded SRAM and particle detector based on pulse stretching inverters.
The plasma panel sensor (PPS) is an inherently digital, high gain, novel variant of micropattern gas detectors inspired by many operational and fabrication principles common to plasma display panels (PDPs). The PPS is comprised of a dense array of small, plasma discharge, gas cells within a hermetically-sealed glass panel, and is assembled from non-reactive, intrinsically radiation-hard materials such as glass substrates, metal electrodes and mostly inert gas mixtures. We are developing the technology to fabricate these devices with very low mass and small thickness, using gas gaps of at least a few hundred micrometers. Our tests with these devices demonstrate a spatial resolution of about 1 mm. We intend to make PPS devices with much smaller cells and the potential for much finer position resolutions. Our PPS tests also show response times of several nanoseconds. We report here our results in detecting betas, cosmic-ray muons, and our first proton beam tests.
The VSiPMT (Vacuum Silicon PhotoMultiplier Tube) is an innovative design we proposed for a revolutionary photon detector. The main idea is to replace the classical dynode chain of a PMT with a SiPM (G-APD), the latter acting as an electron detector and amplifier. The aim is to match the large sensitive area of a photocathode with the performance of the SiPM technology. The VSiPMT has many attractive features. In particular, a low power consumption and an excellent photon counting capability. To prove the feasibility of the idea we first tested the performance of a special non-windowed SiPM by Hamamatsu (MPPC) as electron detector and current amplifier. Thanks to this result Hamamatsu realized two VSiPMT industrial prototypes. In this work, we present the results of a full characterization of the VSiPMT prototype.
We present the design principle and test results of a data transmitting ASIC, GBS20, for particle physics experiments. The goal of GBS20 will be an ASIC that employs two serializers each from the 10.24 Gbps lpGBT SerDes, sharing the PLL also from lpGBT. A PAM4 encoder plus a VCSEL driver will be implemented in the same die to use the same clock system, eliminating the need of CDRs in the PAM4 encoder. This way the transmitter module, GBT20, developed using the GBS20 ASIC, will have the exact lpGBT data interface and transmission protocol, with an output up to 20.48 Gbps over one fiber. With PAM4 embedded FPGAs at the receiving end, GBT20 will halve the fibers needed in a system and better use the input bandwidth of the FPGA. A prototype, GBS20v0 is fabricated using a commercial 65 nm CMOS technology. This prototype has two serializers and a PAM4 encoder sharing the lpGBT PLL, but no user data input. An internal PRBS generator provides data to the serializers. GBS20v0 is tested barely up to 20.48 Gbps. With lessons learned from this prototype, we are designing the second prototype, GBS20v1, that will have 16 user data input channels each at 1.28 Gbps. We present the design concept of the GBS20 ASIC and the GBT20 module, the preliminary test results, and lessons learned from GBS20v0 and the design of GBS20v1 which will be not only a test chip but also a user chip with 16 input data channels.
We have developed a repeating pulsed magnet system which generates magnetic fields of about 10 T in a direction transverse to an incident beam over a length of 0.8 m with a repetition rate of 0.2 Hz. Its repetition rate is by two orders of magnitude higher than usual pulsed magnets. It is composed of four low resistance racetrack coils and a 30 kJ transportable capacitor bank as a power supply. The system aims at axion-like particle searches with a pulsed light source and vacuum birefringence measurements. We report on the details of the system and its performances.