amendment_0001.pdf

Solicitation SB1341-16-RQ-0280 Data Acquisition Electronics Package

Amendment 001: The purpose of this amendment is to answer questions and extend the due date for quotations:

Question 1:

Specification 4a Time Stamping: Is it possible to know the "nature" of the reference signal?

Levels (NIM, TTL, LVDS...) and frequency?

Answer 1:

The reference signal will be a TTL logic pulse. The duty cycle will vary with the type of measurement performed (from tens of milliseconds to hours).

Question 2:

6a ii Pulse Height: A single point in the waveform (maximum) is requested or an average of few (how many?) samples?

Answer 2:

Specification 6a (ii): For pulse heights we require the signal maximum averaged over ~ 200ns.

Question 3:

6a iii Diagnostic Mode: Which us the record length (acquisition window) for each waveform?

Answer 3:

Specification 6a (iii) – NIST requires an acquisition window of at least 10 usec. 3 usec before the trigger point and 7 usec after.

Question 4:

Specification 7a: Must this calculus include the host PC?

Answer 4: No, a host PC could reside off of the analyzer arm. Our expectation is that the communication between host PC and front end modules is robust whether said PC resides on the arm or elsewhere.

Question 5.

What stray magnetic field is expected in the installation volume of the readout electronics?

Answer 5:

We expect to be using high field superconducting magnets with strengths exceeding 7T. Aside from that the principle motivators for using SiPMs were size, bias voltage, and cost. The fringe fields shall less than 100 G.

Question 6:

What is the NIST developed algorithms for n/Gamma discrimination to look into the required man power to develop mode b.

Answer 6: See attachment A – Algorithms;

Question 7:

What data format is to be implemented (what has an impact on the amount of data to be transferred)

Answer 7:

NIST will write its own applications to histogram event data and will stream event data to disk for possible post-processing. Archival format will be the NeXus structured hierarchical data format. NIST does not expect a vendor to implement writers for this data.

Question 8:

For count rate and dark current considerations, what are the signals/noise and signal form (rise and –more critical- decay/shapping time)?

Answer 8:

NIST provides typical signals as the data acquisition electronics would see them. The subsequent answers define the boundary conditions on the signals.

Question 9:

What is the Input range?

Answer 9:

Input Range 2Vp-p (+/- 1V)

Question 10:

What is the Input Impedance?

Answer 10:

Impedance 50 or 100 Ohm

Question 11:

What is the Analog bandwidth?

Answer 11:

Analog Bandwidth 25MHz - 30MHz - 35MHz

Question 12:

What is the Connector type (associated to input impedance to some extent, single ended/differential)?

Answer 12:

Minimum connector type must be at least mass terminated

Question 13:

Operational Test: What is the nature of the setup these performances will rely mainly on the algorithm developed at NIST.

The environment for these performance take place are: ADCs on the front end to digitize a signal and FPGAs on the back end to process that digitized signal. We just want to ensure that the vendor’s solution performs similarly to ours under the same conditions

The due date for quotations is hereby extended as follows:

From: June 10, 2016 by 3:30 pm eastern

To: June 24, 2016 by 3:30 pm eastern.