A multi-channel digital programable delay trigger system with high accuracy and wide range

This paper presents a multi-channel Digital Programmable Delay Trigger System (DPDTS) with high accuracy and wide delay range, which can be widely used in laser system and electron accelerator. This DPDTS mainly makes up of reference clock module, user interface and control module and Digital Programmable Delay Trigger (DPDT) module which is implemented on a Xilinx V6LX75T FPGA. In this DPDTS, DDS algorithm is used in frequency control, while soft microprocessor MicroBlaze is instanced for user interface control. Time delay is separated into wide range coarse delay and narrow range fine delay. Wide range coarse delay is achieved through counter, while narrow range fine delay is achieved through cascaded absolute delay element called IODELAYE1 in FPGA. Besides, the DPDTS, with the ability of automatic clock switch, can protect the controlled laser system. Experiment result shows that, for this designed DPDTS, the accuracy is approximate 78 ps, the time jitter is 55 ps, and the delay range is from 0 to 999 us with delay step of 78 ps.