Optical timing receiver for the NASA Spaceborne Ranging System. Part II: high precision event-timing digitizer
Position-resolution capabilities of the NASA Spaceborne Laser Ranging System are essentially determined by the timeresolution capabilities of its optical timing receiver. The optical timing receiver consists of a fast photoelectric device; (e.g., photomultiplier or an avalanche photodiode detector), a timing discriminator, a high-precision event-timing digitizer, and a signal-processing system. The time-resolution capabilities of the receiver are determined by the photoelectron time spread of the photoelectric device, the time walk and resolution characteristics of the timing discriminator, and the resolution of the event-timing digitizer. It is thus necessary to evaluate available fast photoelectronic devices with respect to the time-resolution capabilities, and to develop a very low time walk timing discriminator and a high-resolution event-timing digitizer to be used in the high-resolution spaceborne laser ranging system receiver. This part of the report describes the development of a high precision event-timing digitizer. The event-timing digitizer is basically a combination of a very accurate high resolution real time digital clock and an interval timer. The timing digitizer is a high resolution multiple stop clock, counting the time up to 131 days in 19.5 ps increments.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 1022100
- Report Number(s):
- LBL-8129
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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