NALU SCIENTIFIC, LLC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase II: 32b

Description

Nalu Scientific will develop the “HDSoC,” a fast integrated circuit to readout several (up to 64) high-speed signals generated by particles in nuclear and high energy physics experiments. Detection of individual charged particles and photons and estimation of their properties is the basis for a wide range of scientific and commercial applications from high-energy, nuclear, and astrophysics to medical imaging and diagnosis and LiDAR. We are targeting the data acquisition market for medium to large scientific experiments in the energy or intensity frontiers. These complex experiments require hundreds to thousands of recording channels at high samplings speed and high rates capable of fast data acquisition and signal processing. The HDSoC allows for timing resolutions on the order of 100s of picoseconds, translating to highly accurate estimates of charged particles and their tracks. Low cost, low power designs are especially attractive for experiments with thousands of recording channels. We propose to design and make commercially available the “HDSoC”: a low-cost, low-power, high-density waveform sampling chip capable of analog signal conditioning, fast waveform sampling, and integrated readout. The 64-channel HDSoC device will also be capable of controlling sensor biases and perform on-the-fly feature extraction to optimize the readout efficiency for high density detectors, making it suitable for large Nuclear Physics experiments with high trigger rates. We designed a full 32-channel HDSoC chip satisfying the specifications, thus demonstrating the feasibility of the project. The chip will be available for testing at the beginning of phase II. We will test performance and redesign for robustness, fabricating several revisions of the prototype and incrementally add features until the desired 64 channel chip is created. This device can be used by scientists in high energy and nuclear physics experiments for fast analog data acquisition. It also has applications in high-end general-purpose instrumentations, medical/PET imaging, automotive and remote sensing (self-driving vehicles) with LIDAR. We anticipate the ability to sell the device as an OEM manufacturer, provide associated design services or license it to a larger device manufacturer due to the low cost and low power nature of the design, giving us a competitive edge.