Proposal Presentation February 16, 2004 Justin Akagi EE 396 Marcus Suzuki EE 496 Brent Uyehara EE 496

Overview Project Objective Background Information Problem Details Approach Potential Problems Things We Might Learn Possible Deliverables

Project Objective To evaluate the triggering capability of the STRAW3 chip used in the ANITA project and develop a servo-loop for dynamically adjusting the trigger threshold.

Background Information

“[ANITA] will examine the ultimate limits of energy in the universe by measurements of completely new kinds of energetic particles: neutrinos.” “Neutrinos are the only known ultra-high-energy particles that are able to reach the earth unabsorbed cosmological distances.” “[It will] probe the nature and origin of the highest energy cosmic rays, via the most sensitive observation to date of their characteristic neutrino by-products.”

Background Information

Problem Details To record high-energy neutrino events the minimum sampling rate is the Nyquist rate. We must also sample data over 256 channels. It is impractical to record this data continuously because it would result in data rates on the order of terabytes/second. To achieve manageable data rates, we should only record sample data during actual neutrino events. To do this, we must be able to adjust the trigger threshold to recognize events.

Approach Debug STRAW3 trigger interface on the RFCeval board Complete Firmware schematics Load and successfully trigger with a parallel to serial readout Documentation RFCeval trigger operation Measurement of trigger threshold curves Put together a servo-loop (feedback loop) Understand scalar feedback variable Specification of the testing protocol Coding/evaluation of control loop

Potential Problems Software Gremlins Hardware Gremlins Xilinx demons Not enough time Only 24 hours in a day Only 7 days in a week Only 15 weeks in the semester Logical flaws Unforeseen problems

Things We Might Learn Better understanding of computer hardware/firmware IC design, fabrication Reading complicated schematics Debugging hardware/firmware problems Testing principles Equipment: logic analyzer, signal oscilloscope, pulse generator Software: Linux, Xilinx Projects don’t always go as well as we hope

Possible Deliverables Triggering capability for the STRAW3 chip IEEE or Nuclear Instr. and Methods paper

Thank You! Questions? No? Thank You!