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titleArbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG) – Highland Technologies T400B

Technical manual here

Brain dump:

  • AWG is mounted in the same rack as the rest of the shaping hardware, with the EOM mounted inside on an internal mezzanine.
  • Originally purchased as the same realization as what is used at LLNL with the NIF front-end systems.
  • All of the control of the Highland is done through Python sockets directly over the network and a Python class written by Eric Cunningham. 
  • In order to communicate with the Highland, your computer has to be on the same subnet as the Highland. The Highland's IP address can be set using a Lantronix XPort module whose software should be found here.
  • Most of the use of this system is reading and writing pulse heights, but there are many other utilities possible such as control of a ~100ps fiducial pulse (usually used for co-timing of different legs compared to a window on an oscilloscope) and many internal settings. The internal settings shouldn't be messed with too much at all, but we have used these occasionally in the past to make sure that the impulses are equally separated or that the gain is relatively flat across the timing window. Hopefully this isn't necessary too often (there are some old rudimentary routines that exist in some files for these kinds of things that were never fully developed since it ended up not being needed frequently enough to be necessary), especially if the unit is kept in the same place and stays in a stable environment, but Highland has been responsive in the past to any questions that may pop up.
  • Further questions should generally be answerable looking at the manual or at the Python code.
  • NOTE: there may be a few errors in the manual, such as the READ/WRITE MISCELLANEOUS CALIBRATIONS reply/poll length being 81 rather than 79; proceed with caution; the Python code should work though – the learning should be baked in there
  • Upgrade ideas:
    • The T400B is very old technology. There are much newer boxes that could provide higher pixel density, longer arbitrary waveform temporal shaping window, or even both (though there tends to be a trade-off between the two).
    • There is an IOC that was written for the Highland, but we don't use it because it proved to be too slow to operate at 10Hz for our updating loops, so we have it disabled right now. If this could be fixed, we wouldn't have to control it ourselves anymore.
    • There are unused capabilities with this AWG, though it might not be appropriate if the 
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titleModulator Bias Controller (MBC) -- iXBlue MBC-DG-LAB

Product info here
User manual here
Interface manual here
Software here

Brain dump:

  • Most of the bias control parameters can be found in the additional info above.
  • The MBC provides the bias needed to operate the EOM at the zero-point such that any applied voltage from the AWG translates to intensity-modulated output.
  • In order to detect where the appropriate operating point should be, the MBC applies a dither to the voltage output and monitors the drifts in the necessary voltage set-point. This is a MASSIVE problem because the dither clock is NOT locked to the house clock. This means that when the actual pulses are triggered, the EOM is likely NOT operating at the necessary voltage set-point because it is being constantly driven AWAY from that setpoint by the dither. The dither frequency and voltage can be controlled directly by the manufacturer's software, but it has its problems (the available settings range for voltage and frequency is limited, and we had issues with the software being able to run at all unless the OS's default numbering protocol was set to European style with a comma representing a decimal rather than a point), and these settings aren't accessible from the IOC.
    • As a result, shaping performance is very unstable and unpredictable UNLESS the bias dither is turned OFF for any high-consequence activities such as recipe creation/shaping and on-target (user) shots. For the short term, disabling the bias dither should not cause any degradation in performance – the drift being monitored by the dither generally takes place on the time scales of tens of minutes or hours. The dither can be turned off by switching from AUTO to MAN(ual) voltage control in the IOC.
    • HOWEVER, re-engaging the dither causes the voltage output to be scanned across the full output range of -10V to +10V. If CW light is seeded into the amplifiers, then high-energy microsecond pulses can be output that can damage the serrated aperture at the output of the YFE or other optics. As such, the currents of the YFE heads need to be turned down before the MBC is switched back from MAN to AUTO. The shaping code should do this automatically if controlling the MBC from there; if controlling it from the IOC directly, exercise caution!
  • Upgrade ideas:
    • Solve the dither problem – either get it locked to the house clock or get rid of it completely!!


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titlePolarization-maintaining (PM) Fiber -- Thorlabs

Product info here