Pyramid Technical Consultants I128 User manual

I128
Ionization Chamber Controller
User Manual
Pyramid Technical Consultants, Inc.
1050 Waltham Street Suite 200, Lexington, MA 02421 USA
US: TEL: [phone]  FAX: [phone]  EMAIL: [e-mail]
Europe: TEL: [phone]

I128 User Manual
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1 Contents
1 CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................................................ 2
2 FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................................ 6
3 SAFETY INFORMATION ............................................................................................................................... 8
4 MODELS .......................................................................................................................................................... 10
5 SCOPE OF SUPPLY ....................................................................................................................................... 11
6 OPTIONAL ITEMS AND RELATED PRODUCTS .................................................................................... 12
6.1 IONIZATION CHAMBERS .................................................................................................................................. 12
6.2 POWER SUPPLIES ............................................................................................................................................ 12
6.3 SIGNAL CABLES AND CABLE ACCESSORIES ..................................................................................................... 12
6.4 DATA CABLES ................................................................................................................................................ 12
6.5 TRIGGER DISTRIBUTION ................................................................................................................................. 13
7 INTENDED USE AND KEY FEATURES .................................................................................................... 14
7.1 INTENDED USE ............................................................................................................................................... 14
7.2 KEY FEATURES .............................................................................................................................................. 14
8 SPECIFICATION ............................................................................................................................................ 16
9 INSTALLATION ............................................................................................................................................. 23
9.1 MOUNTING ..................................................................................................................................................... 23
9.2 GROUNDING AND POWER SUPPLY ................................................................................................................... 23
9.3 CONNECTION TO SIGNAL SOURCE ................................................................................................................... 24
Typical setup ........................................................................................................................................ 24
Cables .................................................................................................................................................. 27
Signal current path .............................................................................................................................. 27
10 HOW THE I128 WORKS AND HOW TO USE IT - AN OVERVIEW ..................................................... 30
10.1 MULTICHANNEL ELECTROMETER INPUT (CHANNELS 1 TO 128) ................................................................. 30
10.2 INTEGRAL PLANE ELECTROMETER INPUT (CHANNEL 0 - HCC) .................................................................. 31
10.3 ACQUISITION MODES ................................................................................................................................. 32
10.4 TRIGGERING .............................................................................................................................................. 32
10.5 SELF-TESTING AND CALIBRATION.............................................................................................................. 32
10.6 HIGH VOLTAGE OUTPUT ............................................................................................................................ 33
10.7 GENERAL-PURPOSE I/O (IONIZATION CHAMBER SERVICES) ....................................................................... 33
10.8 GENERAL-PURPOSE I/O (ACTUATOR CONTROL) ......................................................................................... 33
10.9 MAP EXECUTION AND INTERLOCKING ....................................................................................................... 34
10.10 CONTROLLING REMOTE DEVICES – FIBER OPTIC INTERFACES .................................................................... 34
10.11 MONITOR UNIT OUTPUT ............................................................................................................................. 35
10.12 COMMUNICATION TO THE HOST COMPUTER ............................................................................................... 35
10.13 EMBEDDED SOFTWARE .............................................................................................................................. 35
11 GETTING STARTED USING THE PTC DIAGNOSTIC G2 HOST PROGRAM ................................... 36
11.1 INSTALLATION........................................................................................................................................... 36
11.2 CONNECTING TO THE I128 ......................................................................................................................... 37

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11.3 SCREEN LAYOUT – TOP BANNER ................................................................................................................ 41
11.4 SCREEN LAYOUT – RIGHT-HAND TABS ...................................................................................................... 42
Data tab .......................................................................................................................................... 42
Data analysis .................................................................................................................................. 44
Device ............................................................................................................................................. 45
Setup ................................................................................................................................................ 50
Calibration ...................................................................................................................................... 52
Real Time Processing ...................................................................................................................... 54
Interlocks......................................................................................................................................... 54
Properties ........................................................................................................................................ 55
11.5 SCREEN LAYOUT - GRAPHIC DISPLAY ........................................................................................................ 56
Strip display .................................................................................................................................... 57
Scope display .................................................................................................................................. 58
Histogram display ........................................................................................................................... 58
Cursor ............................................................................................................................................. 58
Filtering and zero subtraction ........................................................................................................ 59
11.6 DATA LOGGING ......................................................................................................................................... 61
12 I128 CIRCUIT OVERVIEW .......................................................................................................................... 62
12.1 PHYSICAL CONFIGURATION ....................................................................................................................... 62
12.2 FUNCTIONS ................................................................................................................................................ 62
Signal current inputs ....................................................................................................................... 62
Calibration current switching ......................................................................................................... 64
Analog signals ................................................................................................................................. 64
Digital signals ................................................................................................................................. 64
High voltage .................................................................................................................................... 65
Interlocks......................................................................................................................................... 65
A60 .................................................................................................................................................. 65
Secondary FPGA............................................................................................................................. 65
Power supplies ................................................................................................................................ 66
13 HIGH VOLTAGE SUPPLIES ........................................................................................................................ 67
13.1 SETTING THE HIGH VOLTAGE SUPPLIES .................................................................................................... 67
13.2 CHANGING THE HIGH VOLTAGE SUPPLY RANGE AND POLARITY .............................................................. 68
14 SAMPLES, LOGGED DATA, INTEGRATION AND AVERAGING ....................................................... 69
14.1 READINGS AND LOGGED DATA .................................................................................................................. 69
14.2 INTEGRATION TIME .................................................................................................................................... 69
14.3 CONVERSIONS PER SAMPLE ....................................................................................................................... 70
14.4 GENERAL PURPOSE ANALOG INPUTS .......................................................................................................... 71
15 TRIGGERS AND DATA BUFFERING ........................................................................................................ 72
15.1 INTERNAL TRIGGER MODE ......................................................................................................................... 72
15.2 DATA BUFFERS .......................................................................................................................................... 72
I128 internal buffer ......................................................................................................................... 72
PTC DiagnosticG2 buffer ............................................................................................................... 73
15.3 EXTERNAL TRIGGERING ............................................................................................................................ 73
Custom triggering ........................................................................................................................... 73
Pre-defined trigger modes .............................................................................................................. 76
Trigger response time ..................................................................................................................... 77
16 MONITOR PULSE OUTPUT ........................................................................................................................ 78
17 ACTUATOR CONTROL ................................................................................................................................ 79
18 INTERLOCKS AND DIRECT CONTROL LINES ..................................................................................... 80

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18.1 PROCESS CONTROL OUTPUTS ..................................................................................................................... 80
18.2 INTERLOCKS .............................................................................................................................................. 80
Enable/Status .................................................................................................................................. 81
Interlock .......................................................................................................................................... 82
Relay ............................................................................................................................................... 82
19 CONNECTING SLAVE DEVICES ............................................................................................................... 83
20 CALIBRATION ............................................................................................................................................... 84
20.1 CURRENT CALIBRATION ............................................................................................................................ 84
20.2 OTHER CALIBRATIONS ............................................................................................................................... 84
21 PEAK FITTING ............................................................................................................................................... 85
22 USING THE TRIANGLE GENERATOR TEST BOARD .......................................................................... 87
23 GATE CONNECTIONS .................................................................................................................................. 89
24 CONNECTORS ............................................................................................................................................... 90
24.1 FRONT PANEL CONNECTORS ...................................................................................................................... 90
I/O port (environmental monitors) .................................................................................................. 90
Actuator .......................................................................................................................................... 91
HCC: High current input (channel 0) ............................................................................................. 91
Signal inputs (strip inputs) .............................................................................................................. 92
High voltage output and input......................................................................................................... 94
24.2 REAR PANEL CONNECTORS ........................................................................................................................ 94
Ethernet communications ................................................................................................................ 94
RS-232 / RS-485 communications ................................................................................................... 94
Gate input and output ..................................................................................................................... 95
Monitor input .................................................................................................................................. 95
Fiber-optic communications ........................................................................................................... 95
Enable/Status port ........................................................................................................................... 95
Interlock port .................................................................................................................................. 96
Relay port ........................................................................................................................................ 96
Power input, 24 VDC ...................................................................................................................... 96
Ground lug ...................................................................................................................................... 96
25 CONTROLS AND INDICATORS ................................................................................................................. 97
25.1 FRONT PANEL CONTROLS .......................................................................................................................... 97
Key switch ....................................................................................................................................... 97
25.2 REAR PANEL CONTROLS ............................................................................................................................ 97
Address switch ................................................................................................................................ 97
Mode switch .................................................................................................................................... 97
Reset button ..................................................................................................................................... 97
25.3 FRONT PANEL INDICATORS ........................................................................................................................ 98
Power on ......................................................................................................................................... 98
Mode switch .................................................................................................................................... 98
HV on .............................................................................................................................................. 98
25.4 REAR PANEL INDICATORS .......................................................................................................................... 98
Power .............................................................................................................................................. 98
Initiated ........................................................................................................................................... 98
Active .............................................................................................................................................. 98
Com ................................................................................................................................................. 98
Power up LED sequence ................................................................................................................. 98
RJ-45 indicators .............................................................................................................................. 99

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26 COMMUNICATIONS INTERFACES ........................................................................................................ 100
26.1 ETHERNET ............................................................................................................................................... 100
26.2 WEB SERVER ........................................................................................................................................... 100
26.3 RS-232 CONNECTION .............................................................................................................................. 101
26.4 RS-485 CONNECTION EXAMPLE ............................................................................................................... 102
26.5 FIBER OPTICS ........................................................................................................................................... 102
27 USING THE I128 ON A NETWORK .......................................................................................................... 104
27.1 NETWORK CONFIGURATIONS ................................................................................................................... 104
27.2 RECOVERY FROM UNKNOWN IP ADDRESS ............................................................................................... 105
Reset at boot time .......................................................................................................................... 105
Using the serial port ..................................................................................................................... 106
27.3 SYSTEM LOG ADDRESS ............................................................................................................................ 106
28 ASCII COMMUNICATION ......................................................................................................................... 107
28.1 USING PUTTY TO TEST THE SERIAL ASCII CONNECTION ........................................................................ 107
29 CREATING A HOST SOFTWARE APPLICATION ................................................................................ 108
30 FAULT-FINDING ......................................................................................................................................... 115
31 MAINTENANCE ........................................................................................................................................... 121
31.1 COOLING FAN MAINTENANCE .................................................................................................................. 121
31.2 CALIBRATION .......................................................................................................................................... 122
32 RETURNS PROCEDURE ............................................................................................................................ 123
33 SUPPORT ....................................................................................................................................................... 124
34 DISPOSAL ...................................................................................................................................................... 125
35 DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY ........................................................................................................ 126
36 REVISION HISTORY................................................................................................................................... 127

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2 Figures
Figure 1. Serial adaptor cable .................................................................................................................................. 12
Figure 2. I128 front and rear panels. Dimensions mm. ....................................................................................... 21
Figure 3. I128 case plan and side views. Dimensions mm. ................................................................................... 22
Figure 4. Schematic example: basic I128 installation ............................................................................................ 25
Figure 5. Schematic example: I128 installation for dual IC128-25 ionization chambers ................................... 26
Figure 6. Current return path: ionization chamber bias provided by HV module in the I128 ......................... 28
Figure 7. Current return path: ionization chamber bias provided separate HV module .................................. 29
Figure 8. Multichannel electrometer input (one of 128 identical parallel inputs, ch1 to 128) ........................... 30
Figure 9. HCC (integral plane, ch0) electrometer input ....................................................................................... 31
Figure 10. High voltage loopback arrangement ..................................................................................................... 33
Figure 11. Schematic example: I128 control of remote devices ............................................................................ 34
Figure 12. PTC DiagnosticG2 installation .............................................................................................................. 37
Figure 13. Direct Ethernet connection. ................................................................................................................... 38
Figure 14. Configuring the IP address on the host computer. .............................................................................. 38
Figure 15. Ping test of the Ethernet connection. .................................................................................................... 39
Figure 16. Discover devices in progress .................................................................................................................. 40
Figure 17. Ready to connect to the I128 .................................................................................................................. 40
Figure 18. Opening the I128 window ...................................................................................................................... 41
Figure 19. HCC graphic displayed .......................................................................................................................... 43
Figure 20. Data analysis display – I128 and PTC DiagnosticG2 calculations ..................................................... 44
Figure 21. IC Device Support ................................................................................................................................... 45
Figure 22. Pixelated device setup screen .................................................................................................................. 47
Figure 23. Measured parameters from pixelated data ........................................................................................... 47
Figure 24. Pixelated Display Options ....................................................................................................................... 48
Figure 25. MLFC setup ............................................................................................................................................. 49
Figure 26. MLFC Energy Display ............................................................................................................................ 50
Figure 27. Setup - Measuring sub-tab ................................................................................................................... 50
Figure 28. Setup - Trigger sub-tab ........................................................................................................................ 51
Figure 29. Setup - HCC sub-tab ............................................................................................................................ 52
Figure 30. Calibration source control ..................................................................................................................... 53
Figure 31. Current input calibrations ..................................................................................................................... 53
Figure 32. Interlock test functions ........................................................................................................................... 54
Figure 33. Firmware versions .................................................................................................................................. 55
Figure 34. Communication settings ......................................................................................................................... 56
Figure 35. IP Configuration control ........................................................................................................................ 56
Figure 36. Graphics display with HCC display enabled. ...................................................................................... 57
Figure 37. Scope mode capture of a pulse............................................................................................................... 58
Figure 38. Strip chart data display showing cursor. .............................................................................................. 59
Figure 39. Increasing the low pass filtering of the displayed data. ....................................................................... 60
Figure 40. Zero correction of displayed data ......................................................................................................... 61
Figure 41. I128 physical layout. ............................................................................................................................... 62
Figure 42. I128 block schematic. ............................................................................................................................. 64
Figure 43. High voltage jumper settings ................................................................................................................. 68
Figure 44. Data feed into samples............................................................................................................................ 70
Figure 45. Contiguous data number of samples as a function of input data rate ............................................... 73
Figure 46. Signal and trigger used for custom trigger examples .......................................................................... 74
Figure 47. Time-varying signal seen in internal mode .......................................................................................... 75
Figure 48. Time-varying signal seen in custom buffered mode ............................................................................ 75
Figure 49. Using trigger signals and burst size to capture a portion of the signal .............................................. 76
Figure 50. Examples of monitor output pulse: TTL (left), transformer-coupled (right).................................... 78
Figure 51. I128 actuator control circuit. ................................................................................................................. 79
Figure 52. Actuator connections for 24 VDC solenoid. ......................................................................................... 79
Figure 53. Interlock relays in series on multiple devices wired for current loop (top) or 24 V logic (bottom). 81

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Figure 54. Enabled/Status interface. ....................................................................................................................... 81
Figure 55. Interlock interface. ................................................................................................................................. 82
Figure 56. Relay interface. ....................................................................................................................................... 82
Figure 57. I128 with two M10 general purpose I/O devices connected as slaves on loop 1 ................................ 83
Figure 58. I128 real time peak fitting ...................................................................................................................... 85
Figure 59. Triangle generator test board ................................................................................................................ 87
Figure 60. Test pattern from triangle generator board using 5V source ............................................................. 88
Figure 61. Time varying signal injected to BNC input of test board.................................................................... 88
Figure 62. Alternative methods for long-distance trigger delivery: 50 ohm line (top), fiber optic (bottom) .... 89
Figure 63. Gate passthrough latency: gate in (yellow), gate out (blue) ............................................................... 89
Figure 64. Interrogating the I128 via a web browser. ......................................................................................... 101
Figure 65. RS-232 cable I128 to PC....................................................................................................................... 101
Figure 66. RS-485 cable I128 to TC100. ............................................................................................................... 102
Figure 67. Direct Ethernet connection .................................................................................................................. 104
Figure 68. Connection via switch........................................................................................................................... 105
Figure 69. Network including router .................................................................................................................... 105
Figure 70. Setup of PuTTY for ASCII serial communication with the I128. .................................................... 107
Figure 71. PX2 and PX3 Ionization Chambers ..................................................................................................... 109
Figure 72. Example pixel array for a Pyramid PX chamber (base 0) ................................................................. 110
Figure 73. Example coordinate axis assignment for PX chambers. ................................................................... 110
Figure 74. Example coordinate axis assignment for PX chambers. ................................................................... 111
Figure 75. 90 MeV (left) and 230 MeV (right) proton beams stopping in a 128-layer MLFC. ........................ 112
Figure 76. Multi-layer Faraday Cup ...................................................................................................................... 112
Figure 77. Calculated and measured ranges in an MLFC for typical proton energies used in particle therapy
......................................................................................................................................................................... 113
Figure 78. Typical range curve for a 128 layer MLFC using 0.02 inch copper layers and Kapton insulation.
......................................................................................................................................................................... 114
Figure 79. Fan filter removal ................................................................................................................................. 121
Figure 80. Fan power connector (2 pin Molex) .................................................................................................... 122

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3 Safety Information
This unit is designed for compliance with harmonized electrical safety standard EN61010-
1:2000. It must be used in accordance with its specifications and operating instructions.
Operators of the unit are expected to be qualified personnel who are aware of electrical safety
issues. The customer’s Responsible Body, as defined in the standard, must ensure that operators
are provided with the appropriate equipment and training.
The unit is designed to make measurements in Measurement Category I as defined in the
standard.
CAUTION. According to installed options, the I128 can generate high voltages as follows,
present on the central conductor of the SHV (Safe High Voltage) output connector.:
+ or – 2000 V DC at 0.5 mA maximum.
or
+ or – 1000 V DC at 1.0 mA maximum
or
+ or – 500 V DC at 2.0 mA maximum
The hazardous live voltages on the SHV central conductor are not accessible under the
definitions of EN61010 but may nevertheless give a noticeable shock if misuse were to lead you
to come into contact with them. The user must therefore exercise appropriate caution when
using the device and when connecting cables. Power should be turned off before making any
connections.
The unit must not be operated unless correctly assembled in its case. Protection from high
voltages generated by the device will be impaired if the unit is operated without its case. Only
Service Personnel, as defined in EN61010-1, should attempt to work on the disassembled unit,
and then only under specific instruction from Pyramid Technical Consultants, Inc..
The unit is designed to operate from +24VDC power, with a typical maximum current
requirement of 1000 mA. A suitably rated power supply module is available as an option. Users
who make their own power provision should ensure that the supply cannot source more than
3000 mA.
A safety ground must be securely connected to the ground lug on the case.
Some of the following symbols may be displayed on the unit, and have the indicated meanings.

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Direct current
Earth (ground) terminal
Protective conductor terminal
Frame or chassis terminal
Equipotentiality
Supply ON
Supply OFF
CAUTION – RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK
CAUTION – RISK OF DANGER – REFER TO MANUAL

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4 Models
I128 Ionization chamber controller with 128 electrometer channels, and
one multi-range I-V converter / gated integrator channel.
-XP20/10/5 Add positive 0 to 2000V / 1000 V / 500 V HV output
-XN20/10/5 Add negative 0 to 2000V / 1000 V / 500 V HV output
-Mxx Increase maximum input current for electrometer channels 1-128 to
xx µA (options 2 µA, 5 µA, 10 µA, 20 µA; default is 550 nA)
-MPN Monitor unit output pulses transformer-coupled negative-going
(default is TTL levels).
-DSUM Configure integral dose plane input switching as A or A+B (default is
A or B)
Example:
I128-XP10-M05 I128 with 1000V positive high voltage output and 5 µA maximum
current on electrometer inputs.