FAST ComTec MCA4A User Manual Download

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MCA4A

4 Input Multichannel Analyzer

2 Input Multichannel Scaler

User Manual

Grünwalder Weg 28a, D-82041 Oberhaching

Germany

Version 2.09, October 25, 2018

Summary of Contents for MCA4A

Page 1: ...MCA4A 4 Input Multichannel Analyzer 2 Input Multichannel Scaler User Manual Copyright FAST ComTec GmbH Gr nwalder Weg 28a D 82041 Oberhaching Germany Version 2 09 October 25 2018...

Page 2: ...2 F ComTec GmbH...

Page 3: ...o use this software on only one compatible computer at a time You must get FAST ComTec s written permission for any exception to this license Backup Copy This software is protected by German Copyright...

Page 4: ...d voltage analysis 38 3 3 4 Single channel analyzer SCA 38 3 3 5 Real time live time and system time counter 38 3 3 6 List mode data acquisition 38 3 3 7 Event tagging spectrum multiscaling 38 3 4 Mul...

Page 5: ...fications 98 7 3 1 ADC inputs 98 7 3 2 GATE MCS inputs 98 7 3 3 SCA outputs 99 7 3 4 Digital I O ports 99 7 3 5 Reference clock I O 99 7 3 6 Octal Counter inputs 99 7 3 7 RTC RESET input 99 7 4 Perfor...

Page 6: ...shaper parameters 26 Fig 2 28 MCA4 Settings select MCS Mode 26 Fig 2 29 MCS Settings for a simple measurement 27 Fig 2 30 Simple MCS spectrum 27 Fig 2 31 Basic RTC Experiment 28 Fig 2 32 Triggering th...

Page 7: ...indow 73 Fig 5 2 MPANT Map and Isometric display 74 Fig 5 3 File New Display dialog 75 Fig 5 4 Compare dialog 76 Fig 5 5 Compare two spectra 76 Fig 5 6 Print dialog 77 Fig 5 7 Slice and rectangular RO...

Page 8: ...8 F ComTec GmbH...

Page 9: ...llows for an easy setup and evaluation of the experiment The PHA data can be tagged with the 8 digital I O bits and also with the 8ns Real Time Clock A set of eight 125MHz Counter Scalers is also prov...

Page 10: ...computer hardware and operating system We do not expect any problems with host compatibility as we do not use something else than any USB hard disk or memory stick Of course it is necessary that the...

Page 11: ...vices Please right click it and select Update driver from the drop down menu Windows offers to search automatically for updated driver software or browse the computer for the driver software Don t try...

Page 12: ...se remove the power from the MCA4A device and reconnect it If you don t see the device at all it is possible that the USB3 driver must be updated For a Renesas USB3 controller there is an update progr...

Page 13: ...ram controls the MCA4A module but provides no graphics display capability by itself By using the MPANT program the user has complete control of the MCA4A along with the MPANT display capabilities To r...

Page 14: ...e MPANT program which actually is the graphical user interface and which will appear now on your screen At the very first start of the software and the MCA4A a calibration of the internal hardware bas...

Page 15: ...DC input you may set the same polarity for all inputs simultaneously by clicking the Set All button You will be asked if you want new offsets for all channels then new zero offsets are measured automa...

Page 16: ...tions Hardware Settings or ref Fig 2 6 to find the MCA4A Settings window pop up Fig 2 7 Here select PHA Mode and then click on ADC Settings to get the ADC Settings and Presets dialog window Referring...

Page 17: ...deselct Auto scale and Minimum auto scale ref Fig 2 10 Press OK This makes sure we will see the full 16 bit ADC conversion range After activation of the spectrum display a_1 2 in Fig 2 12 again select...

Page 18: ...elow the scope window x scale to find a good value for the trigger threshold and revert to normal CH1 trigger Looking at Fig 2 12 one can easily see the square wave had an amplitude of some 4 8V with...

Page 19: ...ion rates 1MHz without loss We use a general sine wave generator The upper half of a sine wave actually does not look so different from a Gaussian shaped amplifier signal We set the frequency to 1MHz...

Page 20: ...and 6VPP amplitude The PHA spectrum below shows a rising peak near channel 5559 As can be seen near the mouse pointer the converted signal rate is only some 2kHz To be able to process higher pulse rat...

Page 21: ...only one display the PHA spectrum remains in the MPANT window After starting the measurement again a peak begins to rise approximately at channel 5559 and you can see a data rate of almost 1MHz This...

Page 22: ...olar pulse polarity and use the scope mode to see how the input signals look like In the ADC Settings dialog select Neg unipolar set PHA to Maximum and Scope Mode with Falling edge trigger Then setup...

Page 23: ...irmware based shaping ref Fig 2 22 This inverts the input signals which is necessary since the firmware based shaping and pulse height analysis procedures are applicable for positive going pulses only...

Page 24: ...tive going inverted signals that are applicable to the firmware shaping and analysis procedures 24 F ComTec GmbH Fig 2 22 Scope Picture of the internal Test Pulser Fig 2 23 Scope Picture of the invert...

Page 25: ...pre amplifier pulses as in Fig 2 26 With the now open Pole Zero Adjust window you may change the settings of the pole zero filter and optimize the resulting shaped pulse form F ComTec GmbH 25 Fig 2 2...

Page 26: ...NC output Or you use 1 signal that is connected via a power splitter to the MCA4 In our example we have a function generator that is set to square wave with 0 3 3V amplitude like a low voltage TTL sig...

Page 27: ...e 50 Ohm and click OK After starting the measurement a garden fence like spectrum begins to grow ref Fig 2 30 The distance of the peaks is 100 channels corresponding to 100 x 100ns 10 s or 100kHz F Co...

Page 28: ...the trigger signal acts as start and the ADC signal as stop input The delay time is then measured with a resolution of 8 ns or 1 msec if the 8 ns RTC option is not enabled and a time spectrum of the v...

Page 29: ...et by each new signal there so the real time cannot longer be used for normalizing The system time computer run time and live time may be used instead of it The trigger signal should be a short pulse...

Page 30: ...Installation procedure That is all you have to do next time when you start the software all modules will be found and can be operated 30 F ComTec GmbH Fig 2 35 Editing MCA4 INI...

Page 31: ...ering of other measurement equipment Furthermore a versatile 8 bit digital I O port allows for a whole bunch of experimental control monitoring or whatsoever other tasks Moreover the 8 bit digital I O...

Page 32: ...e Fig 4 11 Standard values for the 8 V 2 5 V and 2 V ranges are 8875 2640 and 2120 Enter the new VPP value if you have changed the input range and save it You can do a precise calibration of VPP if yo...

Page 33: ...ignals In PHA mode these inputs can be used as GATE PHA event gating is evaluated at the threshold crossing COINC and ANTI coincidence is available In SVA mode the selected edge of the GATE signal sam...

Page 34: ...idated 6 Digital I O ports A very versatile 8 bit digital I O port is implemented on the FEATURE I O connector Since the corresponding resistors are socket mounted they can be easily user configured i...

Page 35: ...rter samples the input signals at a continous 125MHz rate The data can be evaluated in several ways Each input channel might be configured independently Scope mode Pulse height analysis PHA Sampled vo...

Page 36: ...virtually no analysis induced dead time as a new pulse can be stored while a previous is still processed After the input signal fell below the threshold again the pulse sampling is finished and proces...

Page 37: ...arly useful when the pulse width is largely dependent on the pulse height Pile up rejection A pile up rejection feature is implemented The incoming data is checked for a possible second peak before th...

Page 38: ...120ns long SCA pulse is generated This is available at the FEATURE I O connector ref Fig 3 5 3 3 5 Real time live time and system time counter Each of the 4 ADC channels is equipped with 2 independent...

Page 39: ...s automatic time bin advancement in the range of min 30ns 1 channel MCS or min 50ns dual channel MCS up to 248 1 x 10ns 781h in steps of 10ns External channel advance is supported via the correspondin...

Page 40: ...between up and down counting by the individual GATE inputs Also a common gate is provided The usage can be individually selected for each channel Also a common LOAD is individually selectable This ac...

Page 41: ...click a shortcut icon linking to the server program The server program performs a test whether the hardware works well on this computer then starts MPANT and gets iconized Usually you will control eve...

Page 42: ...to write a MPA file containing the configuration and all spectra at the stop of a measurement The file name can be entered If the checkbox auto incr is crossed a 3 digit number is appended to the file...

Page 43: ...edit fields from and Preset The Replay Speed can be specified in units of 100 kB per sec To Use Modified Settings enable the corresponding checkbox otherwise the original settings are used To start Re...

Page 44: ...tween Full 128 Mb Medium 32 Mb and Small 8 Mb For real data acquisition the full size is recommended For adjusting parameters when using Scope mode a small FIFO size is useful as changes can be observ...

Page 45: ...referably by a sweep preset condition The complete run stops after performing the specified number of cycles The spectra are then shown in a two dimensional view row by row in the MPANT program As the...

Page 46: ...he ADC Presets dialog as shown in Fig 4 10 Here all preset parameters for PHA mode and SVA mode can be set Select the ADC in the drop down listbox at top right If the checkbox ROIpreset is marked the...

Page 47: ...fields Here the units are in LSB s of the 16 bit ADC i e full range is from 0 to 65535 If an event is recorded inside the SCA boundaries a pulse signal can be output at the corresponding monitor outpu...

Page 48: ...trigger event is detected Single Shot means that the acquisition is stopped after a single trigger event To do this an event count preset of 1 is set The Pretrigger can be selected between none 30 sam...

Page 49: ...value corresponding to a shaping time in between of those in the list If your pulses are shaped with a rather long shaping time it could be necessary to increase the max Width of the Fit range to get...

Page 50: ...hich method of anchoring the ROI gives the best result for a varying pulse height 50 F ComTec GmbH Fig 4 12 Setting a ROI in the waveform for the pulse height analysis of flattop pulses Fig 4 13 How t...

Page 51: ...bution can be acquired and a two dimensional spectrum showing the pulse height versus pulse width can be created It is possible to reject events if the pulse width is larger than a specified limit See...

Page 52: ...nally as a ratemeter The scalers can be individually named the values are saved into the data file For an exact synchronizing of start and stop of the scalers with the acquisition it is recommended to...

Page 53: ...an external trigger for starting the system DESY control line If the corresponding checkbox Start with Dig 4 is marked a start command for the respective system will not immediately start the system...

Page 54: ...gs dialog opens It allows to define dual parameter spectra showing coincident events from two ADC inputs The coincidence is recognized by the software if events from different ADC have a RTC value tha...

Page 55: ...can left the Name edit field untouched to choose an automatically generated name like RTC x a_1 The checkbox Time Differences enables recording time spectra relative to an event in any selected ADC Fo...

Page 56: ...en Any such calculated spectrum can be used as a parameter for a multi parameter spectrum If Conditions are defined one can be selected as a necessary Condition for incrementing a channel in this spec...

Page 57: ...ck Fit to enter the Channel value of the fitted peak position For the Value enter the fit result of the peak position in the first ADC Click Calibrate and enable Use Calibration then click OK Proceed...

Page 58: ...rameter or a copy of a primary spectrum There are two drop down list boxes for the Parameter and ROI Of course the ROI must be defined before by using the MPANT program it is not possible here to add...

Page 59: ...g condition press Add Tag to open the Tag Condition dialog Here a Condition can be defined that is true for a special tag bit pattern Two parameters Pattern and Mask can be edited in hex format with t...

Page 60: ...rum file format Another ASCII file format is the x y format with extension csv It can be read for example with Excel and contains the channel number and content as two decimal numbers in ASCII per lin...

Page 61: ...are the length of the counter data minus one in units of 16 bit words This size value is 11 or in hex format b for 12 16 bit words or 3 64 bit counter data The counter data follow then next real time...

Page 62: ...necessary to have a TCP IP Winsock installed and that the remote shell daemon program MPA4NET is running See the readme file on the installation disk Send the commands via the DLL interface from LabV...

Page 63: ...10 000 time preset unipolar 1 unipolar or bipolar 0 event_cnt_mode 1 count only stored events fifosize 0 0 128 MB 1 32 MB 2 8 MB sca1 ffff LOWORD upperlevel SCA 1 HIWORD lowerlevel SCA 1 sca2 ffff sca...

Page 64: ...0 active range 4096 spectrum length same as MCS1 range CHN1 Scopemode Channel 1 parameters active 0 active range 4096 waveform length CHN2 active 0 range 4096 CHN3 active 0 range 4096 CHN4 active 0 ra...

Page 65: ...file is overwritten loaddat Loads data of actual channel the filename must be specified before with a command datname adddat Adds data into actual spectra the filename must be specified before with a...

Page 66: ...st count is the present one plus the numruns number After a file with this count was saved with autoinc on instead of the onstop command the onlast command is executed onlast command The command is ex...

Page 67: ...DLL control interface MC_A Sends the status of MC_A via the serial port and make it actual MC_H Sends the status of MC_H via the serial port and make it actual Send the status of the actual channel s...

Page 68: ...owing should be seen as a general description of the DDE conversation capabilities of the MCA4 server program 4 4 1 Open Conversation application MCA4 topic MCA4 Any application that wants to be a cli...

Page 69: ...ed as an ASCII string i e it must be converted by the client to get the numbers All other parameters concerning the setup can be obtained by the client application by reading and evaluating the config...

Page 70: ...r finishing the DDE communication with the server program it must be closed The following figure shows the Panel of the described VI for LabVIEW 70 F ComTec GmbH Fig 4 33 Getting the data with LabVIEW...

Page 71: ...Software Description F ComTec GmbH 71 Fig 4 35 Control Panel of the demo VI for LabVIEW...

Page 72: ...end commands like range 16384 to the server via the RunCmd DLL function i e RunCmd 0 range 16384 if you want to set parameters like a spectra length The alternative method is to store all settings par...

Page 73: ...counts per channel i e ROISum divided by number of channels and the centroid is displayed x for single spectra x and y for two dimensional A single spectrum can be converted into a two dimensional on...

Page 74: ...or adding a MP data file The Load function creates then a new spectrum for compare whereas the Add functions adds the data to the spectrum selected by the active window For saving a selected spectrum...

Page 75: ...Display With the Open New menu item or the corresponding icon a new Display window can be created and shown as the active window In the Open New Display dialog box the spectrum for the new display can...

Page 76: ...imary window and there is a list of other spectrum windows that can be inserted as secondary windows Using the features of the software it is possible to create a shifted spectrum that has a character...

Page 77: ...ted into some other Windows applications Setup Printer The Setup Printer menu item enables to configure the printer Exit The Exit menu item exits the MPANT program The server and any measurement data...

Page 78: ...n Shape or the corresponding toolbar icon Define the ROI using the right mouse button the TAB and the END key please read the help in the status bar and save the ROI using the toolbar icon Create new...

Page 79: ...press the END key at the second circle Pie Sets the Region shape to pie To enter a pie Region using the mouse click the right button at the center and first radial end point press the END key at the s...

Page 80: ...on parameters can be saved into a CTL file and reloaded using the File menu like any control file Note that the selected ROI can be advanced in any activated spectra display by pressing the and key fr...

Page 81: ...deviations are given The value of Q is the normalized chi 2 To take into account the systematic error of the line shape you may multiply the errors with the square root of Q Click on Save to append a...

Page 82: ...e log file Two radio buttons enable to select between Gaussian fit and general peak evaluation The several quantities are written in standard text format with Tabs as separators and a Newline characte...

Page 83: ...OI s in the active Display for which a calibration value was entered in the ROI editing dialog and performs a calibration using the fit results You have then only to check use calibration in the calib...

Page 84: ...n which mode is chosen The current color and palette setup may be saved or a new one can be loaded To change on of the colors select Palette colors and click on one of the colors In the Color Palette...

Page 85: ...unts The button labeled Custom Formula provides spectra that are calculated in a special DLL named FMPA3 DLL This DLL allows to calculate spectra and to display it with the MPANT program The source co...

Page 86: ...o be done directly using toolbar icons and The Tilt angle is between the x and y axis and can be chosen between 15 and 89 degrees The Height specifies the percentage of the z axis length respective to...

Page 87: ...led the tick length and thickness can be chosen The style of the axis labeling depends on enabled ticks at the bottom respective left side If no ticks are enabled there only the lowest and highest val...

Page 88: ...he visible region for a longer time deselect the Auto scaling mode Then with the scroll bar thumb one can quickly change the visible region scale otherwise the scale will be changed automatically The...

Page 89: ...libration is on the calibrated values are displayed together with the channel position of the cursor For MAP spectra the dialog is slightly different and allows to select by two radio buttons between...

Page 90: ...first line automatically contains the time and date when a measurement was started The second line contains the title of the spectra Note that editing this line changes the spectra name This is the o...

Page 91: ...dialog box allows to make all the respective settings ref 4 1 4 Data The Data Operations dialog allows to edit format settings and to load and save spectra data ref 4 1 3 F ComTec GmbH 91 Fig 5 21 Se...

Page 92: ...a slice in a dual parameter spectrum Click on a dual parameter spectrum display to make it the active window then select the Slice menu item or toolbar icon The Slice dialog box is displayed Select x...

Page 93: ...dialog Created slice spectra displays remain visible and their coordinates can be changed later using the Slice utility again The position of the Slice dialog with respect to the MPANT main window can...

Page 94: ...nclude icons for free programmable function keys F1 F12 into the Toolbar The function keys can be programmed in the Function keys dialog with any one of the commands described in 4 3 It can be accesse...

Page 95: ...at the meaning of the toolbar icon is Status window The status window at the left side of the MPANT main window can be shown in a small or large size or can be hidden Save As Saves all parameters defi...

Page 96: ...MPANT Software 96 F ComTec GmbH Fig 5 29 MPANT with four systems enabled...

Page 97: ...or Visual Basic LabVIEW and C that is available as an option Furthermore LINUX software is available as an option containing a driver library and console test program A Windows software similar to the...

Page 98: ...oltage 0 3 3 V 7 3 Specifications 7 3 1 ADC inputs Input impedance 8V option 1 07 k 10V standard 1 33 k Input voltage range 10V option unipolar nominal 0 10 V bipolar nominal 5 V Other ranges settable...

Page 99: ...sistor 22 Input voltage at IC pin VIH min 2 0 V VIL max 0 8 V Output voltage at IC pin VOH IOH 4 0mA min 2 4 V VOL IOL 8 0mA max 0 4 V 7 3 5 Reference clock I O Input frequency auto dtected 5 100 MHz...

Page 100: ...ns Live realtime resolution standard 1 ms RTC option 8 ns Timer preset range standard 248 x 1 ms RTC option 248 x 8 ns Reference voltage temperature drift max 3 ppm C Resolution Gaussian fit 32k rang...

Page 101: ...01 Fig 7 2 ADC integral linearity plot for 32k ADC range Fig 7 3 ADC differential non linearity plot for 32k ADC range Fig 7 1 ADC noise spectrum generated with a ramp generator and Gaussian fit Fig 7...

Page 102: ...OH 0 1 mA min 3 1 V Output LOW voltage IOL 0 1 mA max 0 2 V 7 4 4 Multichannel scaler Dwell time modes internal auto external Internal dwell time 1 channel MCS min 30 ns 2 channel MCS min 50 ns max 24...

Page 103: ...els 2 32000 50ns dwell time ref Fig 7 7 0 1 Sweep counter 48 bit Sweep counter preset range 1 248 Spectrum sequencing max 65536 spectra End of sequence dead time auto sequence mode 30 ns F ComTec GmbH...

Page 104: ...20 mm x 320 mm x 160 mm 3 4kg 7 6 Accessories Included USB 3 0 A A cable 3m USB 2 0 compatible Power supply 100 240 VAC 12 VDC min 2 0 A Power supply cord if necessary D sub15 HD plug with plastic cap...

Page 105: ...check the 12V supply cable is properly plugged in 3 check that the external power supply works check it s output voltage The MCA4A is not found by the host computer 1 check that the USB cable is prop...

Page 106: ...Appendix 106 F ComTec GmbH...

Page 107: ...Appendix 7 8 Personal Notes F ComTec GmbH 107...

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