Low threshold acquisition controller for Skipper charge-coupled devices

The development of the Skipper-charge-coupled devices (Skipper-CCDs) has been a major technological breakthrough for sensing very weak ionizing particles. The sensor allows to reach the ultimate sensitivity of silicon material as a charge signal sensor by unambiguous determination of the charge signal collected by each cell or pixel, even for single electron-hole pair ionization. Extensive use of the technology was limited by the lack of specific equipment to operate the sensor at the ultimate performance. A simple, single-board Skipper-CCD controller designed by the authors is presented and aimed for the operation of the detector in high sensitivity scientific applications. Our article describes the main components and functionality of the so-called low threshold acquisition controller together with experimental results when connected to a Skipper-CCD sensor. Measurements show unprecedented deep subelectron noise of 0.039 erms-/pix by nondestructively measuring the charge 5000 times in each pixel.Fil: Cancelo, Gustavo Indalecio. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; Estados UnidosFil: Chavez, Claudio. Universidad Nacional de Asunción; ParaguayFil: Chierchie, Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages". Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica y de Computadoras. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages"; ArgentinaFil: Estrada, Juan. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; Estados UnidosFil: Fernández Moroni, Guillermo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages". Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica y de Computadoras. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages"; Argentina. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; Estados UnidosFil: Paolini, Eduardo Emilio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages". Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica y de Computadoras. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages"; ArgentinaFil: Sofo Haro, Miguel Francisco. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Idehesi-inst Mult Est Soc Contem (uncuyo); ArgentinaFil: Soto, Angel Jose. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages". Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica y de Computadoras. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages"; ArgentinaFil: Stefanazzi, Leandro. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages". Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica y de Computadoras. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Eléctrica "Alfredo Desages"; ArgentinaFil: Tiffenberg, Javier Sebastian. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Treptow, Ken. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; Estados UnidosFil: Wilcer, Neal. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; Estados UnidosFil: Zmuda, Ted. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; Estados Unido

Experimental advances with the QICK (Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit) for superconducting quantum hardware

The QICK is a standalone open source qubit controller that was first introduced in 2022. In this follow-up work, we present recent experimental use cases that the QICK uniquely enabled for superconducting qubit systems. These include multiplexed signal generation and readout, mixer-free readout, pre-distorted fast flux pulses, and phase-coherent pulses for parametric operations, including high-fidelity parametric entangling gates. We explain in detail how the QICK was used to enable these experiments

DARKNESS: A Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector Integral Field Spectrograph for High-Contrast Astronomy

We present DARKNESS (the DARK-speckle Near-infrared Energy-resolving Superconducting Spectrophotometer), the first of several planned integral field spectrographs to use optical/near-infrared Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) for high-contrast imaging. The photon counting and simultaneous low-resolution spectroscopy provided by MKIDs will enable real-time speckle control techniques and post-processing speckle suppression at framerates capable of resolving the atmospheric speckles that currently limit high-contrast imaging from the ground. DARKNESS is now operational behind the PALM-3000 extreme adaptive optics system and the Stellar Double Coronagraph at Palomar Observatory. Here we describe the motivation, design, and characterization of the instrument, early on-sky results, and future prospects.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figures. PASP Publishe

DARKNESS: A Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector Integral Field Spectrograph for High-contrast Astronomy

We present DARKNESS (the DARK-speckle Near-infrared Energy-resolving Superconducting Spectrophotometer), the first of several planned integral field spectrographs to use optical/near-infrared Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) for high-contrast imaging. The photon counting and simultaneous low-resolution spectroscopy provided by MKIDs will enable real-time speckle control techniques and post-processing speckle suppression at frame rates capable of resolving the atmospheric speckles that currently limit high-contrast imaging from the ground. DARKNESS is now operational behind the PALM-3000 extreme adaptive optics system and the Stellar Double Coronagraph at Palomar Observatory. Here, we describe the motivation, design, and characterization of the instrument, early on-sky results, and future prospects

The central track trigger of the DO experiment

©2004 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.The general purpose DO collider detector, located at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, is operated in the high luminosity (L = 2 X 10(32) cm(-2) s(-1)) and high-collision-rate environment (396 ns between beam crossings) of the upgraded Tevatron proton anti-proton accelerator. DO uses a three-tiered trigger system to select events for offline storage and analysis. This paper describes the architecture and performance of the DO central track trigger (CTT) system based on the new central fiber tracker, central preshower and forward preshower detectors, with emphasis on the interface to and integration with the second tier L2 Trigger system

First results from the central tracking trigger of the DO experiment

©2004 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.An overview of the DO Central Track Trigger (CTT) for the Tevatron Run 2 program is presented. This newly commissioned system uses information from the DO Central Fiber Tracker and Preshower Detectors to generate trigger information for the first level of the three-tiered DO Trigger. The system delivers tracking detector trigger decisions every 132 ns, based on input data flowing at a rate of 475 Gbit per second. Initial results indicate excellent performance of the CTT. First studies of efficiency and trigger performance of the CTT are presented

Real-time data reorganizer for the D0 central fiber tracker trigger system at Fermilab

A custom digital data Mixer system has been designed to reorganize, in real time, the data produced by the Fermilab D0 Scintillating Fiber Detector. The data is used for the Level 1 and Level 2 trigger generation. The Mixer System receives the data from the front-end digitization electronics over 320 Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) links running at 371 MHz. The input data is de-serialized down to 53 MHz by the LVDS receivers, clock/frame re-synchronized and multiplexed in Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). The data is then reserialized at 371 MHz by LVDS transmitters over 320 LVDS output links and sent to the electronics responsible for Level 1 and Level 2 trigger decisions. The Mixer System processes 311 Gigabits per second of data with an input to output delay of 200 nanoseconds

Experimental advances with the QICK (Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit) for superconducting quantum hardware

The Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit (QICK) is a standalone open-source qubit controller that was first introduced in 2022. In this follow-up work, we present recent upgrades to the QICK and the experimental use cases they uniquely enabled for superconducting qubit systems. These include multiplexed signal generation and readout, mixer-free readout, predistorted fast flux pulses, and phase-coherent pulses for parametric operations, including high-fidelity parametric entangling gates. We explain in detail how the QICK was used to enable these experiments

The DO Central Track Trigger

©2004 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.An overview of the system architecture and algorithms used for the DO Central Track Trigger (CTT) in the Run 2 of the Fermilab Tevatron Proton-Antiproton Collider is presented. This system uses information from the newly commissioned Central Fiber Tracker and Preshower Detectors to generate Level 1 trigger decisions. It also generates lists of seed tracks and preshower clusters that are sent to the Level 1 Moon Trigger, L2 Silicon Track Trigger, and Central and Forward Preshower Level 2 preprocessors. The system consists of modular boards which utilize field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to implement trigger algorithms. The system delivers trigger decisions every 132 ns, based on input data flowing at a maximum sustained rate of 475 gigabits per second. The first results of trigger efficiency studies are presented