10MHz, 10k-Pixel Fast Fiber-Coupled Imaging Devices for Plasma Diagnostics

High speed imaging of plasmas is limited to relatively short record lengths and is very expensive. Portions of the tradeoff space where slightly reduced spatial resolution allows gains in record length and reduced costs are poorly explored. HyperV Technologies Corp. proposes to construct a 1000 pixel fiber coupled framing camera with a frame rate of 100 Megaframes per second or better, a record length in excess of 2048 frames, and a pixel depth of 8 to 12 bits. This will allow 2048 frame movies of fast, bright plasma events to be recorded in a single shot. Phase 1 activity centered around the design, construction, and testing of a prototype 100 pixel fiber-coupled streak camera. Images received by a 1x100 array of fibers connected to photodiode pixels were directly integrated with analog front-ends and digital back-ends. Each fiber channel was successfully tested at 20,000,000 frames per second with resolutions of 10 bits, and record lengths of 128,000 frames. The individual channels were then integrated to construct a 100 pixel streak camera (seven modules of fifteen pixels each). The camera was tested by observing fast moving plasma jets as a representative light source. Results of the Phase 1 experimentation were then used to generate designs for cameras with up to 10,000 pixels at the same performance, and also cameras with fewer pixels but at up to five times the speed and increased bit resolution. In Phase 2 a framing camera capable of recording bursts of high speed plasma video at frames rates of 100,000,000 frames per second with arrays of up to 1000 pixels and resolutions of 8, 10, or 12 bits per pixel will be designed, constructed, and tested. Smaller pixel count protoypes will be tested first at HyperV and then at several volunteer university and national lab plasma physics research groups. These testing results will be used to generate the final 1000 pixel full-scale camera design, targeted for the specific needs of pulsed plasma physics research groups. HyperV will then construct a fully operational 1000 pixel prototype camera and test it by observing HyperVs high speed plasma jets. Commercial Applications and OtherBenefits: The primary commercial application is in sales or rental of the device to researchers performing experiments in which long record length at high speed (i.e. 100 Megaframes per second) is needed and a 1000 pixel resolution is acceptable. This includes magnetic fusion devices such as tokamaks, as well as plasma propulsion, and basic plasma physics research. However other low-shot-count, fast, bright events could be recorded as well, such as in applications in ballistics and explosives.