Time-of-Flight Measurements Using FPGAs

Southwest Research Institute Engineering, 2008-09

Liaison(s): Jorg-Micha Jahn
Advisor(s): Sarah Harris
Students(s): Whitney Hsiong (TL-F), Steve Huntzicker (TL-S), Kevin King (S), Austin Lee (F), Chen Lim (S), Jason Wang (F)

The Space Sciences division of SwRI is interested in determining the time-of-flight (ToF) of subatomic particles between parallel sheets of foil in space. Currently SwRI uses Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) for this purpose. The purpose of this clinic project is to save costs by implementing the same type of ToF system with a nanosecond resolution on a much less expensive Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).