4GHz time-to-digital converter (TDC)

Kore is pleased to announce our new 4GHz time-to-digital converter (TDC) product for 2010. This timing unit with 250ps capability is the product of a three year development programme and replaces our older 2ns TDC. The new TDC will feature in all future Kore products for time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

As with our previous 2ns TDC, we are offering our new TDC as a stand-alone product for researchers who are building their own TOF experiments and who are looking to configure their equipment with a high performance timing unit.

We also offer to bundle the TDC with a data acquisition computer running GRAMS/AI - a general spectroscopy program from Thermo Galactic for which Kore has written time- of-flight mass spectrometry 'extensions'. With this bundle, a user can add the ability to acquire and manipulate time-of-flight mass spectrometry data to their instrumentation, without needing to write their own data acquisition software.

4GHz Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC)

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Introduction

The Kore 4GHz time-to-digital converter (TDC) is new for 2010 and is a compact, bench-top timing unit designed to record a fast stream of event times relative to a single start event (at time=0). It performs this task with a timing resolution of 0.25 ns with minimal dead time, high data rates and the ability to repeat the experiment at very high repetition rates. These features make the unit ideal for use in Time-of-Flight (TOF) mass spectrometry applications. In such an application, the unit issues or receives a cycle start signal at pre-set intervals and waits to receive timing pulses from an ion detector. The pulse times are recorded, buffered and streamed to the PC via a standard USB 2.0 serial interface. Here the standard driver software may process them to spectra 'live', or stream them to the hard disk for more flexible processing options.

This product on its own, without the data acquisition system and software, is suited to engineers with experience of integrating instrument systems. Users with little or no programming experience are advised to ask Kore about the extended data package with a Kore data acquisition computer, GRAMS /AI and Kore TOF acquisition software.

Key Features

Detailed TDC Specification

Deliverables

Note 1: The data collection utilities are launched from the command line with parameters taken from a simple text file. They can be used for collecting time histograms, collecting time-stamp list-files and monitoring count-rates within a pair of regions of interest for diagnostic purposes. They display windows during execution to show experiment progress. A complete data system might have in addition (a) a graphical user interface to assist in selecting experimental parameters (b) software to process the data and display the result in the form of plots or images. These facilities can be added by the user; the utilities have been designed to make this as easy as possible. Alternatively, the optional Grams/AI and extensions may be purchased.

Pricing for 2010

Item Price
TDC in bench-top mains-powered case, with mains lead, USB cable, software drivers and data collection utilities. £7,500

4GHz Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) and Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Data Acquisition System

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Introduction

Our new 4GHz TDC can be purchased together with a data acquisition system running GRAMS/AI with Kore TOF Mass Spectral 'extensions'. Such a package would be of use to researchers who are building TOF-MS apparatus or have existing equipment and would like to purchase a complete TOF data acquisition / data plotting system.

The Kore 4GHz time-to-digital converter (TDC) is new for 2010, and is a compact, bench-top timing unit designed to record a fast stream of event times relative to a single start event (at time=0). It performs this task with a timing resolution of 0.25 ns with minimal dead time, high data rates and the ability to repeat the experiment at very high repetition rates. These features make the unit ideal for use in Time-of-Flight (TOF) mass spectrometry applications. In such an application, the unit issues or receives a cycle start signal at pre-set intervals and waits to receive timing pulses from an ion detector. The pulse times are recorded, buffered and streamed to the PC via a standard USB 2.0 serial interface. Here the standard driver software may process them to spectra 'live', or stream them to the hard disk for more flexible processing options.

GRAMS/AI from Thermo Galactic is a general spectroscopy software suite. Kore has been using the GRAMS platform successfully for many years in its instrumentation, and has written what we term 'mass spectral extensions' specifically for the case of time-of- flight spectrometry.

A researcher would use the TDC's start signal to trigger various units in the apparatus, and would take the detector output signal to the TDC signal input. The researcher would then have 250ps timing accuracy up to 4.2ms (maximum cycle length) combined with full data acquisition and replotting facilities.

Key Features

Detailed TDC Specification

Key Features of GRAMS/AI and Kore Mass Spectral Extensions

Deliverables

Note 2: The data collection utilities are launched from the command line with parameters taken from a simple text file. They can be used for collecting time histograms, collecting time-stamp list-files and monitoring count- rates within a pair of regions of interest for diagnostic purposes. They display windows during execution to show experiment progress. A complete data system might have in addition (a) a graphical user interface to assist in selecting experimental parameters (b) software to process the data and display the result in the form of plots or images. These facilities can be added by the user; the utilities have been designed to make this as easy as possible. Alternatively, the optional Grams/AI and extensions may be purchased.

Pricing for 2010

Item Price
TDC in bench-top mains-powered case, with mains lead, USB cable, software drivers and data collection utilities, data acquisition PC, GRAMS/AI, Kore software £10,500
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27 January 2010 20:21

© Kore Technology Limited 2010