Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “tracker”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 559 records · Page 31
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

200 mm sensor development using bonded wafers

Sensors fabricated from high resistivity, float zone, silicon material have been the basis of vertex detectors and trackers for the last 30 years. The areas of these devices have increased from a few square cm to > 200m 2 for the existing CMS tracker. High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), CMS and ATLAS tracker upgrades will each require more than 200 m 2 of silicon and the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) will require more than 600 m 2 . The cost and complexity of assembly of these devices is related to the area of each module, which in turn is set by the size of the silicon sensors. In addition to large area, the devices must be radiation hard, which requires the use of sensors thinned to 200 microns or less. The combination of wafer thinning and large wafer diameter is a significant technical challenge, and is the subject of this work. In this paper we describe work on development of thin sensors on 200 mm wafers using wafer bonding technology. Results of development runs with float zone, Silicon-on-Insulator and Silicon-Silicon bonded wafer technologies are reported.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Magnetic triggering — time-resolved characterisation of silicon strip modules in the presence of switching DC-DC converters

Modules for the ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) strip tracker include a DC-DC converter circuit glued directly to the silicon sensor which converts the 11 V supplied to the module to the 1.5 V required for the operation of the readout chips. The DC-DC converter unit, consisting of a copper solenoid and custom ASIC, is located directly above the silicon strip sensor and therefore needs to be shielded to protect the sensor from EMI noise created during the operation of the circuit. Despite dedicated shielding, consisting of an aluminium shield box with continuous solder seams encompassing the surface components and a copper layer in the PCB beneath it, module channels connected to sensor strips located beneath the converter circuit were found to show a noise increase. While the DC-DC converter unit causing the underlying EMI noise operates at a frequency of 2 MHz, module characterisation measurements for ITk strip tracker modules are typically performed asynchronously to the DC-DC switching and are therefore averaged over the full range of time bins with respect to the converter frequency. In order to investigate the time dependence of the noise injection relative to the DC-DC switching frequency, a dedicated setup to understand the time-resolved performance change in modules was developed. By using a magnetic field probe to measure the field leaking through the shield box and triggering on its rising edge, data taking could be synchronised with the DC-DC switching. This paper illustrates the concept and setup of such time-resolved performance measurements using magnetic triggering and presents results for the observed effects on signal and noise for ATLAS ITk strip modules from both laboratory and beam tests.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Quality concerns caused by quality control — deformation of silicon strip detector modules in thermal cycling tests

The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is currently preparing to replace its present Inner Detector (ID) with the upgraded, all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk) for its High-Luminosity upgrade (HL-LHC). The ITk will consist of a central pixel tracker and the outer strip tracker, consisting of about 19,000 strip detector modules. Each strip module is assembled from up to two sensors, and up to five flexes (depending on its geometry) in a series of gluing, wirebonding and quality control steps. During detector operation, modules will be cooled down to temperatures of about -35 °C (corresponding to the temperature of the support structures on which they will be mounted) after being initially assembled and stored at room temperature. In order to ensure compatibility with the detector's operating temperature range, modules are subjected to thermal cycling as part of their quality control process. Ten cycles between -35 °C and +40 °C are performed for each module, with full electrical characterisation tests at each high and low temperature point. As part of an investigation into the stress experienced by modules during cooling, it was observed that modules generally showed a change in module shape before and after thermal cycling. This paper presents a summary of the discovery and understanding of the observed changes, connecting them with excess module stress, as well as the resulting modifications to the module thermal cycling procedure.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Experimental results from the characterization of a 32-channels mixed-signal processor for the GAPS experiment

This work describes the experimental results obtained from the characterization of a 32-channels readout ASIC that is the core of a module composed by 4 Lithium-drifted Silicon, Si(Li), detectors. The module is the building block of a tracker in an upcoming balloon experiment. The activity is carried out within the General AntiParticle Spectrometer (GAPS) international collaboration, whose objective is the indirect detection of dark matter through the detection of antiparticles present in cosmic rays at low energies. The balloon flight is foreseen in 2024 from the McMurdo station in Antarctica. The ASIC is designed in a 180 nm CMOS technology and has 32 low-noise analog readout channels featuring a dynamic compression of the signal, an 11-bit SAR ADC, and a digital back-end section responsible for channel setting and for sending digital information to the data acquisition system of the tracker. This work has a twofold goal: it intends on the one hand to verify the performance of the circuit, on the other to select at least 300 good samples to be used for the assembly of the GAPS Si(Li) tracker.

Riceputi, Elisa↗
DOE OSTI2017

Jet reconstruction and performance using particle flow with the ATLAS Detector

This paper describes the implementation and performance of a particle flow algorithm applied to 20.2 fb –1 of ATLAS data from 8 TeV proton–proton collisions in Run 1 of the LHC. The algorithm removes calorimeter energy deposits due to charged hadrons from consideration during jet reconstruction, instead using measurements of their momenta from the inner tracker. This improves the accuracy of the charged-hadron measurement, while retaining the calorimeter measurements of neutral-particle energies. The paper places emphasis on how this is achieved, while minimising double-counting of charged-hadron signals between the inner tracker and calorimeter. In conclusion, the performance of particle flow jets, formed from the ensemble of signals from the calorimeter and the inner tracker, is compared to that of jets reconstructed from calorimeter energy deposits alone, demonstrating improvements in resolution and pile-up stability.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Alignment of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) in space

Abstract The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a precision particle physics detector operating at an altitude of $$\sim 410$$ ∼ 410 km aboard the International Space Station. The AMS silicon tracker, together with the permanent magnet, measures the rigidity (momentum/charge) of cosmic rays in the range from $$\sim 0.5$$ ∼ 0.5 GV to several TV. In order to have accurate rigidity measurements, the positions of more than 2000 tracker modules have to be determined at the micron level by an alignment procedure. The tracker was first aligned using the 400 GeV/c proton test beam at CERN and then re-aligned using cosmic-ray events after being launched into space. A unique method to align the permanent magnetic spectrometer for a space experiment is presented. The developed underlying mathematical algorithm is discussed in detail.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2018

Girder Profile Reproducing Residuals Report

Girder profile is represented by 6 or 8 girder fiducials, depending on the length of the girder. The profile is recorded precisely in environmentally controlled room (ER) where vibrating wire measurement is taken place. The girder profile is expected to be reproduced in tunnel by following a strictly-designed procedure. Girder profile is adjusted by referring to the dynamic reading of laser tracker and is recorded by multiple shots to common targets and girder fiducials. A final 6 tracker setup is performed to confirm the girder profile reported by 2 trackers and report the magnet relative height location by including magnet top fiducial observation. In order to further isolate the impact of instrument and monument geometry, the girder fiducials that are symmetrical relative to beam centerline will be averaged to compute girder profile error. The girder profile reproducing residuals will be summarized for the girders have been profiled so far.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

AMS Thermal Cooling System (Final Report)

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored particle physics experiment on the International Space Station (ISS). AMS is exploring some of the most fundamental questions in physics such as understanding dark matter, antimatter, the origin of cosmic rays and their characteristics as well as searching for new physics phenomena in the universe. It has recorded more than 200 billion cosmic rays since its launch in May 2011. Over time, anomalies associated with the dedicated cooling system of the AMS Silicon Tracker system were observed, leading to the discovery of progressive deterioration in the functioning of the cooling system's four redundant pumps. The Tracker is crucial to the scientific mission of AMS, as it is the only subdetector that can distinguish matter from antimatter. This report details the successful program of work for the installation of the Upgraded Tracker Thermal Pump System (UTTPS) on AMS. This program included: identifying the root cause of deterioration in the original pumps; design, production, testing, and integration of the new UTTPS cooling system; launch of the UTTPS to ISS; installation of the UTTPS in AMS across a series of four complex extra-vehicular activities (EVAs); and establishment of a dedicated Flight Simulator Laboratory to test the performance of the UTTPS under various thermal conditions. This program was critical to the success of the AMS experiment, and its successful completion will enable AMS to continue taking data through 2030.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Dark Matter and Track Triggering with the CMS Experiment (Final Report)

This report summarizes the progress from DOE Early Career Award entitled “Dark Matter and Track Triggering with the CMS Experiment”. The first major goal of the project was to establish a sensitive Dark Matter (DM) search program for the CMS experiment in Run-2 of the LHC. Two related strategies were developed to accomplish this goal. First, we designed and executed searches for DM produced in association with heavy flavor quark pairs, top/anti-top (ttbar) and bottom/anti-bottom (bbbar). In addition, we sought to maximize the power of Run-2 DM searches through the development of a statistical combination of all major search channels within a consistent theoretical framework. The results of these aspects of the project are detailed in Section 1. The second major goal of the project was to develop a real-time “Level-1” tracking trigger system for the high-luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) CMS upgrade. Charged particle tracking in the first stage of the CMS trigger will be crucial for surviving the high-pileup environment expected at the HL-LHC. The L1 tracking trigger must process all front-end hit data sent from the inner Tracker and will have just 4us to output track primitives to the downstream L1 trigger without data loss. Our development of the CMS tracking trigger is described in Section 2. The team supported by the award is given in Section 3. The project resulted in 10 peer reviewed publications, a graduate student thesis, and contributions to the CMS Phase-2 Tracker Technical Design Report, as is detailed in Section 4. Our development work for the CMS tracking trigger has been integrated in the backend system architecture for the Tracker upgrade.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS1972

Optical radiation from regions downstream of mercury bombardment thrusters.

Use of a 0.5-m focal length, plane grating monochromator to measure the radiance of spectral radiation emanating from regions downstream of a mercury bombardment thrustor in the wavelength range investigated was 2800 to 6000 A. This radiation was due primarily to the radiative decay of excited mercury atoms exhausted from the thrustor. Radiance values ranged from 10 to the minus 11th to 10 to the min scm/ster varying with wavelength. For resonant radiation, the spectral radiance may exceed 10 to the minus 8th W/sq cm/ster. From such radiance measurements, it was concluded that the thrustor background radiation should not interfere with the control functions of a star tracker viewing through the thrustor exhaust, provided that the tracker is designed to operate with a sufficiently small field of view. Problems may be encountered, however, during the spacecraft acquisition phase where a larger field of view may be required. Here the thrustor exhaust radiation may be comparable to the star light flux. This problem may be circumvented by locating the tracker view axis so as not to view downstream of the thrustor.

Milder, N. L.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Advanced application flight experiments precision attitude determination system. Volume 2: System tests

The performance capability of each of two precision attitude determination systems (PADS), one using a strapdown star tracker, and the other using a single-axis gimbal star tracker was measured in the laboratory under simulated orbit conditions. The primary focus of the evaluation was on the contribution to the total system accuracy by the star trackers, and the effectiveness of the software algorithms in functioning with actual sensor signals. A brief description of PADS, the laboratory test configuration and the test facility, is given along with a discussion of the data handling and display, laboratory computer programs, PADS performance evaluation programs, and the strapdown and gimbal system tests. Results are presented and discussed.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1977

Investigation of the applications of GEOS-3 radar altimeter data in remote sensing of land and sea features

A number of GEOS-3 passes over the Atlantic Ocean and Southeastern U.S. are examined. Surface-truth and radar altimeter data comparisons are given in terms of surface correlation length, signal fluctuation characteristics, and altitude tracker dynamic response. Detailed analyses are given regarding spatial resolution and its dependency on angular backscatter behavior. These analyses include data from passes over ocean (diffuse scatter), land (large body scatter), and mirror-like inland water areas (pseudo-specular scatter). Altimeter data are examined for a pass over a large reservoir and marsh area of differing water levels; this geometry represents a stepchange in altitude which is usable in determination of the transient response of the tracker. The extent to which pulse-length limited operation pertains over-land is examined. A Wiener filter altitude algorithm is discussed which permits specification of tracker variance and geoidal spectral characteristics during operation.

Miller, L. S.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Performance tests of two precision attitude determination systems

Results of laboratory performance tests of two satellite attitude determination systems are given. One system employed a strapdown star tracker and gyro assembly, the other a single axis, gimballed star tracker and a gyro assembly. The laboratory tests simulated those orbit conditions which would be experienced on a three axis stabilized, earth pointed satellite in geosynchronous orbit. A ground-fixed laboratory test was performed in which system axes remained stationary in the laboratory coordinates while revolving star beams stimulated the star trackers. The laboratory instrumentation techniques used to meet the stringent accuracy requirements are described. Results are presented which show both systems met the performance goal of 3.6 arc seconds. Comparative analyses of both systems are also discussed.

Mcaloon, K. J.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Precision attitude determination for multimission spacecraft

Attitude determination algorithms for a multimission spacecraft are derived and their performance analyzed. The attitude determination system is composed of a strapdown Inertial Reference Unit (IRU), two fixed head star trackers, and an onboard computer. IRU data is processed to maintain real-time knowledge of spacecraft attitude relative to an inertial reference frame. Star tracker data is processed using Kalman filtering techniques to estimate and correct the attitude determination errors and the gyro drift compensation errors. The results of a star availability analysis for stellar, solar and earth pointing missions are presented. Linear covariance analysis techniques are used to evaluate nominal attitude determination performance, the effects of sensor measurement accuracy variations, the effects of errors in knowledge of sensor measurement accuracy, and the effects of star tracker misalignment errors. Results of a nonlinear simulation analysis of attitude determination performance are also presented. These analyses show that precision attitude determination for stellar, solar and earth pointing missions is achieved.

Murrell, J. W.↗
NASA NTRS1977

A relationship between eye movement patterns and performance in a precognitive tracking task

Eye movements made by various subjects in the performance of a precognitive tracking task are studied. The tracking task persented by an antiaircraft artillery (AAA) simulator has an input forcing function represented by a deterministic aircraft fly-by. The performance of subjects is ranked by two metrics. Good, mediocre, and poor trackers are selected for analysis based on performance during the difficult segment of the tracking task and over replications. Using phase planes to characterize both the eye movement patterns and the displayed error signal, a simple metric is developed to study these patterns. Two characterizations of eye movement strategies are defined and quantified. Using these two types of eye strategies, two conclusions are obtained about good, mediocre, and poor trackers. First, the eye tracker who used a fixed strategy will consistently perform better. Secondly, the best fixed strategy is defined as a Crosshair Fixator.

Repperger, D. W.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Onorbit IMU alignment error budget

The Star Tracker, Crew Optical Alignment Sight (COAS), and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) from a complex navigation system with a multitude of error sources were combined. A complete list of the system errors is presented. The errors were combined in a rational way to yield an estimate of the IMU alignment accuracy for STS-1. The expected standard deviation in the IMU alignment error for STS-1 type alignments was determined to be 72 arc seconds per axis for star tracker alignments and 188 arc seconds per axis for COAS alignments. These estimates are based on current knowledge of the star tracker, COAS, IMU, and navigation base error specifications, and were partially verified by preliminary Monte Carlo analysis.

Corson, R. W.↗
NASA NTRS1986

CSTAR star catalogue development

The Continuous Stellar Tracking Attitude Reference (CSTAR) system is an in-house project for the Space Station to provide high accuracy, drift free attitude and angular rate information for the GN&C system. Constraints exist on the star catalogue incorporated in the system. These constraints include the following: mass memory allocated for catalogue storage, star tracker imaging sensitivity, the minimum resolvable separation angle between stars, the width of the field of view of the star tracker, and the desired number of stars to be tracked in a field of view. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) catalogue is the basis reference for this study. As it stands, the SAO does not meet the requirements of any of the above constraints. Star selection algorithms have been devised for catalogue optimization. Star distribution statistics have been obtained to aid in the development of these rules. VAX based software has been developed to implement the star selection algorithms. The software is modular and provides a design tool to tailor the catalogue to available star tracker technology. The SAO catalogue has been optimized for the requirements of the present CSTAR system.

Uhde-Lacovara, J. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

An adaptive interpolator algorithm for area-array fine guiance sensors

The present paper provides a description of recent and continuing work related to the development of tracking systems possessing artificial intelligence. It is pointed out that artificial intelligence is being used to provide trackers with the abilities to sense environmental changes which can affect tracker performance, to optimize tracker performance in a changing environment, and to report on the accuracy and stability of the pointing data. The implementation of artificial intelligence in tracking systems is based on the use of adaptive algorithms which correct for tracking errors by applying polynomial corrections to raw tracking output data. The basic operation of a centroid tracking system is discussed, taking into account the limitations on accuracy and stability which exist in the absence of intelligence. Attention is given to the correction method and the implementation of artificial intelligence to improve tracking.

Glavich, T. A.↗