Project Description:

Peak detection is useful in a wide range of applications. To achieve this task, conventional approaches (including dedicated ASIC-based designs) often demand analog readout chains and compulsory add-ons (e.g., additional ADC for peak sampling), rendering them neither compact nor flexible. In this paper, we propose an FPGA-only solution to fulfill this task without any external components. Specifically, we achieve peak detection with only an LVDS comparator and two GPIOs. Therefore, one can flexibly make a practical deployment by a simple routing process, a non-trivial task even for inexperienced engineers. Meanwhile, to further compact the design for peak sampling, we leverage an FPGA-based slope ADC within which, we propose a new resource-efficient and calibration-free TDC architecture. The underlying rational is to minimize the nonlinearity problem by squeezing all resources within a single LAB. We have implemented a prototype using Xilinx FPGA and extensively evaluated its performance in rather challenging scenarios. Results demonstrate a peak digitization error of only about 30mV in a full 1.8V range for impulses with as few as 10ns pulse width. Meanwhile, in a practical deployment that requires a wide range of peak sampling, the achieved energy resolution is only 1.3% worse than a dedicated high-speed oscilloscope.

Acknowledgement:

• This project is filed on December 2021 and is patented. For more information please visit our git repository

  People:

  • Dr. Chao Cai (Associate Proffessor, College of Life Science & Engineering) - Huazhong University of Science and Technology
  • Fei Wang(Ph.D student, College of Life Science & Engineering) - HUST
  • Jiawen Zhou (Master student, College of Life Science & Engineering) - HUST
  • Ziyi Wong (Master student, College of Life Science & Engineering) - HUST

  Related Publications:

• [1] Chao Cai, Fei Wang, Qingguo Xie, Jun Luo. "Peak Detector with An FPGA-only Solution for Multi-Channel Ultra-Fast Signals", in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics,2023