Data acquisition and control system in mass spectrometer is used to acquire and control the vital parameters of the system. Proposed hardware module is a standalone option of data acquisition in both analog and pulse counting mode of acquisition used in QMS. This module also can be used as a general purpose data acquisition module. It has following features:

• Modbus protocol over 4 wire RS422 serial link with upto 105Kbps baud rate.
• Eight channel of 16 bit 100 KSPS (aggregate) analog inputs.
• Two channel of 16 bit ± 10 V analog output.
• Two channel of 16 bit ± 5 V analog output for onboard threshold setting.
• One Pulse counting input for pulses from -10mV to -4V and width greater than 10 nS
• Programmable threshold for the pulse height discrimination.
• Digital logic is implemented in the FPGA.
• One RS422/485 isolated interface.

Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS) is an extremely versatile analytical instrument with applications in wide areas of science and technology like gas analysis, advanced surface science, plasma characterization etc. 

The system sets the instrument parameters and can acquire the instrument data in both analog and pulse counting mode of operation of instrument. Along with normal setting and acquisition through (16bit) DAC and ADC, the hardware also supports for acquisition in pulse counting mode whereby the pulsed of the range -10mv to -4V with the width of greater than 8ns are counted over the settable period of time on the 32bit counter. This feature makes the hardware most suitable for these types of mass spectrometers. This module also can be used as a general purpose data acquisition module. It has following features:

• Modbus protocol over 4 wire RS422 serial link with upto 105Kbps baud rate.
• Eight channel of 16 bit 100 KSPS (aggregate) analog inputs.
• Two channel of 16 bit ± 10 V analog output.
• Two channel of 16 bit ± 5 V analog output for onboard threshold setting.
• One Pulse counting input for pulses from -10mV to -4V and width greater than 10 nS
• Programmable threshold for the pulse height discrimination.
• Digital logic is implemented in the FPGA.
• One RS422/485 isolated interface.
  
  

APPLICATIONS

The data acquisition system is useful in the Quadrupole Mass Spectrometers developed by BARC. Whereas the standalone data acquisition module (i.e. multifunction module) can be used at various places for analog control and acquisition and specifically for pulse counting operations for the pulses from - 10mv to -4V with width 10ns or more (i.e. to count pulses of CEM, MCP etc.)

MANPOWER REQUIREMENT

• One ITI trained electronics/electrical technician for fabrication, assembly, programming and testing.
• One diploma electronics engineer for troubleshooting/repair in case of failures.

ASSEMBLY AND TEST FACILITIES

1. PCB Fabrication and Assembly SMD Soldering and Rework bench.

2. Measuring Equipments

• 6 1/2 Digits Multimeter.
• 100 MHz Oscilloscope.
• Function Generator which can generate 10 nS negative pulse(- 10mV to -4V).
• Personal Computer with 4 wire RS485/RS422 interface/adapter and a RS232 serial port.