The Daedalus sensor is the next version of the nanosecond time-gated, multi-frame hybridized CMOS (hCMOS) x-ray sensor, developed by Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). The Daedalus sensor leverages previous hCMOS features such as nanosecond gated frames while expanding features for increased record length, improved full well depth, and one-side abutment capability. The second version of the Daedalus sensor, the DV2, resolves an increased record length feature called interlacing in addition to the sensor’s ability to hold the integrated electrical charge from photocurrent for longer periods of time needed for full dynamic range during readout. The DV2 sensor characteristics, including background oscillations, skew, key sensor features for timing and high full well, and mapping of the internal temperature sensor are presented and discussed.
Many questions regarding dynamic materials could be answered by using time-resolved ultra-fast imaging techniques to characterize the physical and chemical behavior of materials in extreme conditions and their evolution on the nanosecond scale. In this work, we perform multi-frame phase-contrast imaging (PCI) of micro-voids in low density polymers under laser-driven shock compression. At the Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) Instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), we used a train of four x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) pulses to probe the evolution of the samples. To visualize the void and shock wave interaction, we deployed the Icarus V2 detector to record up to four XFEL pulses, separated by 1-3 nanoseconds. In this work, we image elastic waves interacting with the micro-voids at a pressure of several GPa. Monitoring how the material’s heterogeneities, like micro-voids, dictate its response to a compressive wave is important for benchmarking the performances of inertial confinement fusion energy materials. For the first time in a single sample, we have combined an ultrafast x-ray framing camera and four XFEL pulse train to create an ultrafast movie of micro-void evolution under laser-driven shock compression. Eventually, we hope this technique will resolve the material density as it evolves dynamically under laser shock compression.
Electron-based diagnostics at the National Ignition Facility use Sandia’s Icarus sensors for ultrafast imaging. However, the electron detection performance of these sensors has remained mostly unknown. Previous work characterized the singulated Common Anode photodiode structure of the ”Furi” and ”Hippogriff” but did not include the Common Cathode photodiode structure of the Icarus. Using a fully fabricated Icarus sensor, we measured the cross-sectional geometries and modeled the expected performance; then, we measured the sensor’s EQE, quantum yield, and charge gain with an electron gun. These measurements were essential to understanding the space-charge limitations of the electron-based diagnostics that use them.
KEYWORDS: Sensors, National Ignition Facility, Imaging systems, Diagnostics, Fringe analysis, Pulsed laser operation, Camera shutters, Cameras, Spatial resolution, Near field
Characterization data for the Icarus 2 hybrid-CMOS (hCMOS) imager using near-infrared (NIR) laser pulses is presented. The Icarus 2 hCMOS imagers are four-frame burst mode cameras, with a 1024 x 512 pixel array and 25μm spatial resolution. Designed and built by Sandia National Laboratory for the Ultra-Fast X-ray Imager (UXI) program where they have been used to capture X-ray images at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility and during HED physics experiments. Temporal and spatial characterization is performed using NIR, 1053nm and 1064nm, laser pulses ranging from 43-ps to 20ns. Specific results include gate response, internal reflections, off-gate sensitivity, side-to-side timing skew, and response to a characteristic NIF-like laser pulse. Comparisons between a commercial gated, intensified CCD camera and a commercial time-integrated CMOS camera are included when relevant.
The Icarus camera system, combining a sensor developed by Sandia and readout electronics by LLNL, provides 0.5 Hz bursts of four frames with 3 ns separation. The sensor has 1024×512 25 μm pixels and is 25 μm thick. The system was developed for single line-of-sight measurements at the ns time scale for electrons and X-rays at facilities such as NIF. We report on initial tests of the Icarus system with hard X-rays pulse pairs with nanosecond time spacings at the LCLS, a newly available beam mode. We describe noise, gate profiles, gain, cross-talk, persistence, linearity, and quantum efficiency for the first version of the sensor. We present evidence of the suitability of the system for science measurements at a free electron laser with an X-ray pump X-ray probe experiment. We expect further developments of the technology to allow use of 350 ps bunch separation from the LCLS accelerator and, with a pulsed delay tube like DIXIE, to eventually reach sub-25 ps time-resolved X-ray imaging of processes such as plasma evolution.
L. Claus, A. Boone, T. England, L. Fang, Q. Looker, B. Mitchell, A. Montoya, J. Porter, M. Sanchez, A. Vigil, E. Hurd, A. Carpenter, M. Dayton, C. Durand, G. Rochau
The Daedalus camera is a second-generation imager for the Ultra-Fast X-ray Imager (UXI) program, achieving 1 ns, time-gated, multi-frame image sets for High Energy Density (HED) physics experiments. Daedalus includes a 1024 x 512 pixel array with 25 μm spatial resolution with three frames of storage per pixel with three times larger full well (1.5 million e-) than the last generation camera, Icarus. Daedalus incorporates an improved timing generation and distribution concept to facilitate broader user configurability and application space while improving timing resolution to 1 ns. Electrical timing measurements demonstrated 1 nanosecond shutters. Analog dynamic range is sufficient to provide the expected full well. Read noise of 210 e- has been measured, exceeding design goals. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc. for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.
In this paper characterization data for two versions of a gated hybrid-CMOS image sensor are presented. These sensors, referred to as Icarus and Icarus 2, are two and four frame burst mode cameras respectively, with 1024 x 512 pixel array and 25μm spatial resolution. Designed and built by Sandia National Laboratory for the Ultra-Fast X-ray Imager (UXI) program, they have been used to capture X-ray images at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility and during High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) experiments. Performance data including timing mode, oscillator performance, and gate widths for the Icarus series sensors is covered; this is the first reported data for the four frame Icarus 2 sensors. Additional impacts on device performance due to diode passivation layer for low energy electron sensitivity and low signal linearity are presented. A discussion of oscillator performance, bond wire inductance, and linear response is also covered.
The Icarus camera is an improvement on past imagers (Furi and Hippogriff) designed for the Ultra-Fast X-ray Imager (UXI) program to deliver ultra-fast, time-gated, multi-frame image sets for High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) experiments. Icarus is a 1024 × 512 pixel array with 25 μm spatial resolution containing 4 frames of storage per pixel. It has improved timing generation and distribution components and has achieved 2 ns time gating. Design improvements and initial characterization and performance results will be discussed. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc. for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.
The Hippogriff camera developed at Sandia National Laboratories as part of the Ultra-Fast X-ray Imager (UXI) program is a high-speed, multi-frame, time-gated imager for use on a wide variety of High Energy Density (HED) physics experiments on both Sandia’s Z-Machine and the National Ignition Facility. The camera is a 1024 x 448 pixel array with 25 μm spatial resolution, containing 2 frames per pixel natively and has achieved 2 ns minimum integration time. It is sensitive to both optical photons as well as soft X-rays up to ~6 keV. The Hippogriff camera is the second generation UXI camera that contains circuitry to trade spatial resolution for additional frames of temporal coverage. The user can reduce the row-wise spatial resolution from the native 25 μm to increase the number of frames in a data set to 4 frames at 50 μm or 8 frames at 100 μm spatial resolution. This feature, along with both optical and X-ray sensitivity, facilitates additional experimental flexibility. Minimum signal is 1500 erms and full well is 1.5 million e-.
KEYWORDS: Cameras, Camera shutters, X-ray imaging, National Ignition Facility, Sensors, Photodiodes, X-rays, Picosecond phenomena, X-ray characterization, Signal to noise ratio
We present a characterization technique for nanosecond gated CMOS cameras designed and built by Sandia National Laboratory under their Ultra-Fast X-ray Imager program. The cameras have been used to record images during HED physics experiments at Sandia’s Z Facility and at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility. The behavior of the camera’s fast shutters was not expected to be ideal since they propagate over a large pixel array of 25 mm x 12 mm, which could result in shutter timing skew, variations in the FWHM, and variations in the shutter’s peak response. Consequently, a detailed characterization of the camera at the pixel level was critical for interpreting the images. Assuming the pixel’s photo-response was linear, the shutter profiles for each pixel were simplified to a pair of sigmoid functions using standard non-linear fitting methods to make the subsequent analysis less computationally intensive. A pixel-level characterization of a ”Furi” camera showed frame-to-frame gain variations that could be normalized with a gain mask and significant timing skew at the sensor’s center column that could not be corrected. The shutter profiles for Furi were then convolved with data generated from computational models to forward fit images collected with the camera.
This paper covers the preliminary design of a radiation tolerant nanosecond-gated multi-frame CMOS camera system for
use in the NIF. Electrical component performance data from 14 MeV neutron and cobalt 60 radiation testing will be
discussed.
The recent development of nanosecond-gated multi-frame hybrid-CMOS (hCMOS) focal plane arrays by the Ultrafast
X-ray Imaging (UXI) group at Sandia National Lab has generated a need for custom camera electronics to operate in the
pulsed radiation environment of the NIF target chamber. Design requirements and performance data for the prototype
camera system will be discussed. The design and testing approach for the radiation tolerant camera system will be
covered along with the evaluation of commercial off the shelf (COTS) electronic component such as FPGAs, voltage
regulators, ADCs, DACs, optical transceivers, and other electronic components. Performance changes from radiation
exposure on select components will be discussed. Integration considerations for x-ray imaging diagnostics on the NIF
will also be covered.
Nathan Palmer, Hui Chen, Jarom Nelson, Sukhdeep Heerey, Ken Piston, Mai Thao, Marilyn Schneider, Perry Bell, Dave Bradley, John Porter, John Stahoviak, Marcos Sanchez, Liam Claus
Gated x-ray images through the laser entrance hole (LEH) of a hohlraum can provide critical information for ICF experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), such as the size of the LEH vs time, the growth of the gold bubble1, and the change in the brightness of inner beam spots due to time-varying cross beam energy transfer2. Incorporating a high-speed multi-frame CMOS x-ray imager developed by Sandia National Laboratories3,4 into the existing Static X-ray Imager (SXI) diagnostic5 at NIF, the new Gated LEH Imager #1 (G-LEH-1) diagnostic is capable of capturing two to four LEH images per shot on its 1024x448 pixel photo detector array, with integration times as low as 2 ns per frame. The design of this diagnostic and its implementation on NIF will be presented.
The Ultra-Fast X-ray Imager (UXI) program is an ongoing effort at Sandia National Laboratories to create high speed, multi-frame, time gated Read Out Integrated Circuits (ROICs), and a corresponding suite of photodetectors to image a wide variety of High Energy Density (HED) physics experiments on both Sandia’s Z-Machine and the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The program is currently fielding a 1024 x 448 prototype camera with 25 μm pixel spatial resolution, 2 frames of in-pixel storage and the possibility of exchanging spatial resolution to achieve 4 or 8 frames of storage. The camera’s minimum integration time is 2 ns. Minimum signal target is 1500 e- rms and full well is 1.5 million e-. The design and initial characterization results will be presented as well as a description of future imagers.
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