Feasibility analysis of the use of FPGAs for the implementation of Finite State Machines in atomic clock control context

• Grant number: 23/05606-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2023
• End date: May 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Electrical Engineering - Electrical, Magnetic and Electronic Measurements, Instrumentation
• Principal Investigator: Daniel Varela Magalhães
• Grantee: Enzo Serrano Conti
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07276-1 - CEPOF - Optics and Photonic Research Center, AP.CEPID

Abstract

The need for higher precision in time measurements drives more and more the development of new technologies for atomic clocks. Following this trend, the control of such clocks must be precisely adjusted to take the minimal time possible and not to accumulate delays. Bringing together real-time processing and versatility on re-configurable hardware definitions, FPGA devices have been used to implement such fine control. Not only this, but the time sequence itself, defined by the conception of an atomic clock, also favors the abstraction of that control as a finite state machine. Being so, FPGA devices emerge as a possibility for controlling the previous works of atomic clocks conceived in CEPOF - on those, the signal generation could be adapted to work on the re-configurable hardware of an FPGA board, while the peripherals would remain with their adjacent subsystems unchanged. Thus, it is proposed to analyze the viability of a specific FPGA usage to generate signals in the context of atomic clocks - to do so, it will be analyzed the temporal and electrical characteristics of such signals and they will be compared to the state of the art.