6. PID stabilisation
In
addition
to
external
modulation,
the
ARF/XRF
also
implements
PID
control loops which can be used in conjunction with an
AOM
to
perform intensity or frequency stabilisation of a laser. Each channel
has
an
independent
PID
controller,
which
acts
to
drive
an
“error
signal” provided to the modulation input towards zero.
Engaging the
PID
controller in amplitude mode adjusts the instanta-
neous
RF
output power, which could be used to compensate for the
amplifier frequency response when performing wide-band frequency
ramps,
or to reduce the technical noise of a laser beam propaga-
ting through the
AOM
(“noise eating”).
In frequency mode, the
RF
frequency (and hence frequency shift of the diffracted order) is ad-
justed,
allowing
the
beam
to
be
frequency
stabilised
to
a
narrow
reference, such as a high-finesse cavity.
6.1
Signal conditioning
Upon engaging the
PID
controller, the associated modulation input
SMA
connector
on
the
back-panel
is
treated
as
an
“error
signal”
instead of a control voltage, and the action of the controller is to
drive
this
signal
towards
zero.
However,
in
applications
such
as
intensity stabilisation, it is desirable that the laser beam power as
measured on a photodetector and is held at a non-zero voltage. This
requires analog conditioning of the photodetector signal to subtract
the desired set-point before being fed into the
ARF/XRF
input.
Furthermore, the modulation input used to digitise the error signal
has a
±
1 V range and 12 bits of precision. To improve the response
of the controller, it is often necessary to apply analog gain to the
error signal to make use of the full dynamic range of the
ADC
.
Such signal processing must be done externally to the
ARF/XRF
, with
bandwidth at least an order of magnitude greater than the desired
35
Содержание ARF021
Страница 1: ...Agile RF Synthesizer AOM driver ARF021 ARF421 XRF021 XRF421 Version 1 5 0 Rev 6 ...
Страница 4: ...ii ...
Страница 10: ...viii Contents ...
Страница 26: ...16 Chapter 3 Communications ...
Страница 44: ...34 Chapter 5 External modulation ...
Страница 50: ...40 Chapter 6 PID stabilisation ...
Страница 64: ...54 Chapter 7 Digital I O ...
Страница 100: ...90 Chapter 9 Advanced table mode XRF ...
Страница 128: ...118 Appendix C Command language ...
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