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In-Situ Measurement of Power Loss for Crystalline Silicon Modules Undergoing Thermal Cycling and Mechanical Loading Stress Testing
An in-situ method is proposed for monitoring and estimating the power degradation of mc-Si photovoltaic (PV) modules undergoing thermo-mechanical degradation tests that primarily manifest through cell cracking, such as mechanical load tests, thermal cycling and humidity freeze tests. The method is based on in-situ measurement of the module’s dark current-voltage (I-V) characteristic curve during the stress test, as well as initial and final module flash testing on a Sun simulator. The method uses superposition of the dark I-V curve with final flash test module short-circuit current to account for shunt and junction recombination losses, as well as series resistance estimation from the in-situ measured dark I-Vs and final flash test measurements. The method is developed based on mc-Si standard modules undergoing several stages of thermo-mechanical stress testing and degradation, for which we investigate the impact of the degradation on the modules light I-V curve parameters, and equivalent solar cell model parameters. Experimental validation of the method on the modules tested shows good agreement between the in-situ estimated power degradation and the flash test measured power loss of the modules, of up to 4.31 % error (RMSE), as the modules experience primarily junction defect recombination and increased series resistance losses. However, the application of the method will be limited for modules experiencing extensive photo-current degradation or delamination, which are not well reflected in the dark I-V characteristic of the PV module.
Low-Power, Flexible Sensor Arrays with Solderless Board-to-Board Connectors for Monitoring Soil Deformation and Temperature: Supporting Data
This dataset was used to assess the potential of a Soil Deformation and Temperature Monitoring System developed and presented in the article named "Low-Power, Flexible Sensor Arrays with Solderless Board-to-Board Connectors for Monitoring Soil Deformation and Temperature" and published in Sensors. There are 21 comma-delimited data files (.csv). 14 files contain current measurements performed in a lab setting, enabling the electrical evaluation of the sensor probe. These files are generated by the Keithley DMM6500 multimeter, and list the measured supply current (first column) as a function of time (3rd column). Another set of 6 files is also acquired in lab experiments, but contain soil temperature an deformation measurements, enabling an assessment of the developed device's accuracy. In these files, the first column contains the time (UTC), followed by the sensor's battery voltage and temperature and acceleration values (X, Y, Z) in subsequent columns. The measurements were acquired every 5 seconds. Another .csv file contains field data in a similar format (time, temperature, acceleration) collected at the Teller road (mile 27) site near Nome, Alaska with one probe. The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a research effort to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research. The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska. Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).
Cavity BPM System Tests for the ILC Energy Spectrometer
Abstract Not Provided
Lifetime studies of 130nm nMOS transistors intended for long-duration, cryogenic high-energy physics experiments.
Future neutrino physics experiments intend to use unprecedented volumes of liquid argon to fill a time projection chamber in an underground facility. To increase performance, integrated readout electronics should work inside the cryostat. Due to the scale and cost associated with evacuating and filling the cryostat, the electronics will be unserviceable for the duration of the experiment. Therefore, the lifetimes of these circuits must be well in excess of 20 years. The principle mechanism for lifetime degradation of MOSFET devices and circuits operating at cryogenic temperatures is via hot carrier degradation. Choosing a process technology that is, as much as possible, immune to such degradation and developing design techniques to avoid exposure to such damage are the goals. This requires careful investigation and a basic understanding of the mechanisms that underlie hot carrier degradation and the secondary effects they cause in circuits. In this work, commercially available 130nm nMOS transistors operating at cryogenic temperatures are investigated. The results show that the difference in lifetime for room temperature operation and cryogenic operation for this process are not great and the lifetimes at both 300K and at 77K can be projected to more than 20 years at the nominal voltage (1.5V) for this technology.
NOvA detector technology with intial performance from the surface prototype
NOvA, the NuMI Off-Axis {nu}{sub e} Appearance experiment, will study {nu}{sub {mu}} {yields} {nu}{sub e} oscillations characterized by the mixing angle {Theta}{sub 13}. Provided {Theta}{sub 13} is large enough, NOvA may ultimately determine the ordering of the neutrino masses and measure CP violation in neutrino oscillations. A complementary pair of detectors will be constructed {approx}14 mrad off beam axis to optimize the energy profile of the neutrinos. This system consists of a surface based 14 kTon liquid scintillator tracking volume located 810 km from the main injector source (NuMI) in Ash River, Minnesota and a smaller underground 222 Ton near detector at the Fermilab. The first neutrino signals at the Ash River Site are expected prior to the 2012 accelerator shutdown. In the meantime, a near detector surface prototype has been completed and neutrinos from two Fermilab sources have been observed using the same highly segmented PVC and liquid scintillator detector system that will be deployed in the full scale experiment. Design and initial performance characteristics of this prototype system are being fed back into the design for the full NOvA program.
On sampling fractions and electron shower shapes
We study the usage of various definitions of sampling fractions in understanding electron shower shapes in a sampling multilayer electromagnetic calorimeter. We show that the sampling fractions obtained by the conventional definition (I) of (average observed energy in layer)/(average deposited energy in layer) will not give the best energy resolution for the calorimeter. The reason for this is shown to be the presence of layer by layer correlations in an electromagnetic shower. The best resolution is obtained by minimizing the deviation from the total input energy using a least squares algorithm. The 'sampling fractions' obtained by this method (II) are shown to give the best resolution for overall energy. We further show that the method (II) sampling fractions are obtained by summing the columns of a non-local {lambda} tensor that incorporates the correlations. We establish that the sampling fractions (II) cannot be used to predict the layer by layer energies and that one needs to employ the full {lambda} tensor for this purpose. This effect is again a result of the correlations.
First Results of the LHC Longitudinal Density Monitor
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is the world's largest particle accelerator. It is designed to accelerate and collide protons or heavy ions up to the center-of-mass energies of 14 TeV. Knowledge of the longitudinal distribution of particles is important for various aspects of accelerator operation, in particular to check the injection quality and to measure the proportion of charge outside the nominally filled bunches during the physics periods. In order to study this so-called ghost charge at levels very much smaller than the main bunches, a longitudinal profile measurement with a very high dynamic range is needed. A new detector, the LHC Longitudinal Density Monitor (LDM) is a single-photon counting system measuring synchrotron light by means of an avalanche photodiode detector. The unprecedented energies reached in the LHC allow synchrotron light diagnostics to be used with both protons and heavy ions. A prototype was installed during the 2010 LHC run and was able to longitudinally profile the whole ring with a resolution close to the target of 50 ps. On-line correction for the effects of the detector deadtime, pile-up and afterpulsing allow a dynamic range of 105 to be achieved. First measurements with the LDM are presented here along with an analysis of its performance and an outlook for future upgrades.
Portable Positron Measurement System (PPMS)
Portable Positron Measurement System (PPMS) is an automated, non-destructive inspection system based on positron annihilation, which characterizes a material's in situatomic-level properties during the manufacturing processes of formation, solidification, and heat treatment. Simultaneous manufacturing and quality monitoring now are possible. Learn more about the lab's project on our facebook site http://www.facebook.com/idahonationallaboratory.
Longitudinal Density Monitor for the LHC
Abstract Not Provided
IMPROVED LIFETIME OF A HIGH SPIN POLARIZATION SUPERLATTICE PHOTOCATHODE
Highly spin polarized electron beams are required for the operation of a wide range of accelerators and instruments. The production of such electrons requires the use of Negative Electron Affinity (NEA) activated GaAs-based cathodes operated in photoelectron guns. Because of their extreme sensitivity to poor vacuum conditions the degradation of the photoemission process is so strong that NEA activated GaAs-based photocathodes can only survive in the extreme vacuums typical of DC gun. State-of-the-art on photocathode technology for spin polarized beam productions are summarized. Recent results on the use of robust NEA coating based on the Cs-Te and Cs-Sb leading to improved operational lifetime of a high spin polarization photocathode are reviewed.
A Compact Soft X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility Based on a Dielectric Wakefield Accelerator
X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) are expensive instruments with the accelerator holding the largest portion of the cost of the entire facility. Using a high-energy gain dielectric wakefield accelerator (DWA) instead of the conventional accelerator may reduce the facility size and, significantly, its cost. We show that a collinear dielectric wakefield accelerator can, in principle, accelerate low charge and high peak current electron bunches to a few GeV energy with up to 100-kHz bunch repetition rate. Several such accelerators can share the same tunnel and cw superconducting linac (operating with a few-MHz bunch repetition rate), whose sole purpose is feeding the DWAs with wake producing low-energy, high-charge electron bunches with the desired periodicity. Then, ten or more x-ray FELs can operate independently, each using its own linac. In this paper, we present an initial case study of a single-stage 850-GHz DWA based on a quartz tube with a ~100-MV/m loaded gradient sufficient to accelerate a 50-pC main electron beam to 2.4 GeV at a 100-kHz bunch repetition rate in just under 30 meters. While the accelerated electron beam has a large energy chirp, we show that FEL gain can be maintained by appropriately tapering the undulator, although other schemes may also be possible.
A novel digitization scheme with FPGA-base TDC for beam loss monitors operating at cryogenic temperature
Recycling integrators are common current-to-frequency converting circuits for measurements of low current such as that produced by Fermilab's cryogenic ionization chambers. In typical digitization/readout schemes, a counter is utilized to accumulate the number of pulses generated by the recycling integrator to adequately digitize the total charge. In order to calculate current with reasonable resolution (e.g., 7-8 bits), hundreds of pulses must be accumulated which corresponds to a long sampling period, i.e., a very low sampling rate. In our new scheme, an FPGA-based Time-to-Digital Convertor (TDC) is utilized to measure the time intervals between the pulses output from the recycling integrator. Using this method, a sample point of the current can be made with good resolution (>10 bits) for each pulse. This effectively increases the sampling rates by hundreds of times for the same recycling integrator front-end electronics. This scheme provides a fast response to the beams loss and is potentially suitable for accelerator protection applications. Moreover, the method is also self-zero-suppressed, i.e., it produces more data when the beam loss is high while it produces significantly less data when the beam loss is low.
Improving single slope ADC and an example implemented in FPGA with 16.7 GHz equivalent counter clook frequency
Single slope ADC is a common building block in many ASCI or FPGA based front-end systems due to its simplicity, small silicon footprint, low noise interference and low power consumption. In single slope ADC, using a Gray code counter is a popular scheme for time digitization, in which the comparator output drives the clock (CK) port of a register to latch the bits from the Gray code counter. Unfortunately, feeding the comparator output into the CK-port causes unnecessary complexities and artificial challenges. In this case, the propagation delays of all bits from the counter to the register inputs must be matched and the counter must be a Gray code one. A simple improvement on the circuit topology, i.e., feeding the comparator output into the D-port of a register, will avoid these unnecessary challenges, eliminating the requirement of the propagation delay match of the counter bits and allowing the use of regular binary counters. This scheme not only simplifies current designs for low speeds and resolutions, but also opens possibilities for applications requiring higher speeds and resolutions. A multi-channel single slope ADC based on a low-cost FPGA device has been implemented and tested. The timing measurement bin width in this work is 60 ps, which would need a 16.7 GHz counter clock had it implemented with the conventional Gray code counter scheme. A 12-bit performance is achieved using a fully differential circuit making comparison between the input and the ramping reference, both in differential format.
Fiber-optic diagnostic system for future accelerator magnets
The next generation high energy physics accelerators will require magnetic fields at ~20 T. HTS coils will be an essential component of future accelerator magnets and several efforts are currently dedicated on designing 20 T HTS- LTS hybrid magnets. Among the existing challenges, there is the lack of a robust quench detection system for hybrid magnet technology. Another big challenge is represented by the high number of training quenches required by Nb3Sn magnets to reach performance level. In this framework it is important to find a tool that allow local real-time monitoring of magnet strain and temperature. In this paper, we propose the use of fiber optics sensors for diagnostic and quench detection in future accelerator superconducting magnets. Discrete and distributed fiber optic sensors have demonstrated to be a promising tool. The goal is to instrument hundreds of accelerator superconducting magnets and to move beyond the proof-of-concept level. Significant developments are still needed. Here, we are going to present the most recent results and discuss the most urgent technical developments in order to make those sensors a robust and reliable diagnostic tool for accelerator superconducting magnets over the next 10 year. We foresee that discrete fiber sensors will be a stable diagnostic probe for superconducting magnets over the next 3 to 5 years. More R&D work will be necessary for distributed fibers. The most urgent needs are the increase of sample rate and sensitivity. Close collaboration with vendors will be necessary to improve mechanical properties and fabrication processes in order to produce hundreds of meters of fiber and instrument a large number of accelerator superconducting magnets. Those R&D efforts will last up to 10 years with a founding level that spans between 5-10 M$.
The Solar Wind Electron (SWE) instrument for the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe Mission
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