Archived Projects

Latest at top, dates are when the project started or was released. Confidential projects are not listed or available unless you know what to ask for.

  --->  Please note that a lot of links have changed.  Project folders are now sorted by year.  <---

Feedback Request I am curious who uses what. Are these webpages a waste of time, or are they any help to others?  Are the circuits, software and utilities appearing in other labs?  Please send your comments or suggestions or whatyou have used (or not) or schematics of your version or pictures or anything!  Email me, or be creative and send a postcard! I want to hear from the vacuum!

NOTICE:  This website is provided for reference only.  This is not a kit site!  It is a collection of my work here at the University of Toronto in the Physics department.  If you are considering using any schematics, designs, or anything else from here then be warned that you had better know something of what you are about to do.  No design is guaranteed in any way, including workable schematic, board layout, HDL code, embedded software, user software, component selection, documentation, webpages, or anything. All that said, if stated in the webpages it says it works (which is the vast majority of projects) then for me it worked.  To make the project work may have involved undocumented additions, changes, deletions, tweaks, tunings, alterations, modifications, adjustments, waving of a wand while wearing a pointy black hat, appeals to electron deities and just plain doing whatever it takes to make the project work.

• Directory listing of archived projects
• Miscellaneous files, schematics, information, projects that are too small to warrant their own web page.
• 2012: Push Coils  Started for Rockson Chang in Aephraim's lab.  An evolution of a previous project, supplies 50Ap 10mS pulses to a pair of coils for manipulating atoms in a MOT.
• 2012: Dual µWave EOM Driver Started for Amir Feizpour in Aephraim's lab.  Two commonly studied hyperfine transitions occur at 6.834682612GHz (Rb⁸⁷) and 3.03257GHz (Rb⁸⁵), give or take a few Hz.  This project generates the drive signal for an EOM (ElectroOptical Modulator) to generate optical sidebands on a laser at either frequency.
• 2011: General Purpose DDS  For Joseph's lab.  A 1GSPS DDS to be a general purpose lab instrument, compatible with lab's existing software.
• 2011: Quad SPCM Supplies  For Lee Rozema and Dylan Mahler in Aephraim's lab.  Provides the +2V, +5V and +30V supplies for the Perkin-Elmer SPCM-AQ4C quad single photon counting module.
• 2011:  Integrating Spheres  Started for Allison Lin and Zuoming Qian in Robin's lab.  Two pingpong balls serve as integrating shperes for PDs (photodiodes) on a pulse laser.
• 2011: Balanced TIA  Started for Amir Feizpour in Æphraim's lab in June 2011.  Two PDs (photodiodes) in complimentary connection and a TIA (transimpedance amplifier).  This is part of the Pandora project. 
• 2011: "CATS2" Cold Atoms Transfer System revisited  For Joseph's lab, started Aug 2009.  Revamp of original CATS for higher currents and isolation.
• 2011: Pandora Wavelength PID Started in March 2011, for Aephraim's lab.  This is a spin of a board made by Xingxing Xing which had grounding and other issues, very similar to the "Schlosser" Laser Lock made for the other half of Aephraim's lab a few years ago.
• 2011: Mini-Circuits Boxes  Started April 2011 for Greg  Dmochowski in Aephraim's lab.  Mini-Circuits makes some great parts but sometimes for higher frequencies they only come in SMT packages.  This project makes several boards for those parts.
• 2011: Magnetic Field Gradient Generator  For Julian Schmidt in Aephraim's group.  A pair of anti-Helmholtz coils create a magnetic gradient for the MOT experiment.
• 2010: "Chroma2" Laser Tuning  For Joseph's lab, restarted July 2009.  Updating of the Chroma-Matic project, laser tuning and line narrowing.
• 2010: Analog Isolator  For Joseph's lab, started Oct 2010.  Two channels, transfer ±10V inputs to ±10V outputs with full galvanic isolation.
• 2010: QND (Quantum Non-Demolition Detection) of Photons  For Greg Dmochowski in Aephraim's lab, started June 2010.  Detection of miniscule transient phase shifts for photon detection.
• 2010: X-ray PD Mux  Started in June 2010 for Robin.  Several X-ray PDs (photodiodes) are time multiplexed into an external digitizer.
• 2010: Shim Coils  For Joseph's lab, started March 2010.  A group of about 10 coils adjust for slowly varying ambient magnetic fields and sometimes do some work in manipulating cold atoms
• 2010: "GigaPD" 8GHz Amplified PhotoDiode  For Aephram's lab, started April 2010.  An 8GHz amplified PD to be used as the front end of the ChromaMatic2 laser tuning.
• 2009: "ALPS2" AOM Laser Power Stabilization revisited  For Karl Pirch in Joseph's lab, started July 2009.  Revamp of original ALPS, laser power stabilization.
• 2010: Tapered Amp, Thorlabs Controller For Alma in Joseph's lab, April 2010.  Temperature and amplifier current controller based on the Thorlabs ITC100/133.
• 2009: BEC AC Line Sync For Chris Ellenor in Aephraim's lab, Oct 2009.  Syncronizes the BEC to the 60Hz AC line, to correct for ambient magnetic fields.
• 2009: "Schlosser" Laser Lock  For Chris Ellenor and Rockson Chang in Aephraim's lab, started Jan '09.  Dual laser lock box.
• 2008: Coincidence Counter  For Krister Shalm in Aephram's lab, started Aug '08.  Eleven channel 1-255nS window coincidence counter.
2008: "CATS"Cold Atoms Transfer SystemFor Josefine Metzkes in Joseph's lab, March'08.  Transport the fermion MOT to the experiment chamber with a series of magnetic fields.
2006: "Chroma-Matic" Laser Tuning For Joseph, June'05.  A tunable laser is offset from a reference laser by a relatively narrow and stable spacing, from zero to 7GHz.
2008: "ALPS" AOM Laser Power Stabilization  For Julie Sutton in Joseph's lab, June '08.  Use of AOMs to stabilize laser power.
2008: X-Ray PD TIAs  For Robin and Ludovic, May 2008.   A six channel amplifier for X-Ray photodiodes.
2008: "PhaseOMatic" For Joseph's labs, March'08.  RF source similar to the MicroMatic except for the lower clock (300MSPS) DDS, with some RF extras.
2007: "PhotoFinish" Coincidence Timer For Krister Shalm in Aephraim's lab, Oct'07.  Measures and bins timing difference between arrival of two photons, resolution of <100pS.
2007: Feshbach Coils For Lindsay LeBlanc in Joseph's lab, Sept'07. To measure effects around Feshbach resonance, drives coils at up to 100A with accuracy of 1mA.
2006: TOP Coil Quadrature Driver For Chris Ellanor in Aephraim's lab, Dec'06. Part of the BEC experiment. Two pairs of coils in quadrature, each running at up to 20Ap and up to 20KHz.
2007: MicroMatic Frequency Agile Microwave Source  For Alma Bardon in Joseph's group, Feb'07.  Generates frequencies for the evaporative cooling of potassium gas, part of the BEC experiments.
2007: "Mag-O-Matic2" MOT Coil Driver  For Mike Yee in Joseph's second lab, July'07. Based on the original Mag-O-Matic (AKA BEC Coil Driver), driver the MOT coils.
2005: n-Pulse Selector   For Robin's lab, Nov'05.  Pockels cell driver using fast FETs. This is the same schematic and board as the Piezo Driver project.
2007: E2V CCD Assembly  For Robin in his lab, started March 2007.  Mostly information only about this unit.
2006: Two Photon Source For XingXing Xing in Aephraim's lab. Stabilizes a laser to 780nm using a Rb vapour cell then circuitously generates entangled pairs of 780nm photons.
2006: Tapered Amplifier   For Matt Partlow in Aephraim's lab, started April 2006.  A tapered amplified with all power and temperature controls in one box.
2005: PiezoDriver For Krister Shalm in Aephraim's lab.  Computer controlled voltages to drive a piezo based Fabrey-Perot spectrometer.  Related to n-Pulse Selector project. Nov'05.
2006: Magnetic Null With Stefan Myrskog in Joseph's lab.  Measure 3-axis magnetic fields so that they can be nulled externally. Jan '06.
2005: Shutters  For Robin's lab.  Find a way to gate a 1KHz pulse laser for under $1K per shutter.  Noed for generic use, based around an Altera EP1C3T100C6 FPGA with a 100MSPS 12-bit DAC, quad 3MSPS 16-bit DACs, octal 200KSPS 16-bit ADCs, octal digital I/O (open drain outputs), plus a 16-bit USB 1.1 interface.  Aug'05
2004: APD Coincident Detectors  Contact is Morgan in Aephraim's lab.  Detect coincident pulses in four APDs, any two pulses within 5nS of each other.  Pulses last about 25nS so must be edge detection, pulses occur ~1e6 per second but coincident only about 1e3 per second.  Sept'04
2005: Multi-LED Drive A.K.A "Purple Magic"  Contact is Lindsay Leblanc for Joseph.  10 channel constant current drive, 0-300mA set by pot, enabled by TTL.  LEDs are fixed arrays, 300mA @ 20V.  July'05
2005: ⁴⁰K Evaporator RF Source Contacts are [initially] Ian Leroux and David McKay for Joseph's lab.  Analog Device's AD9858 DDS (Direct Digital Synthesis) development board and associated frequency multipliers and amplifiers.  It is a precision swept source in the 6.8GHz region for evaporative cooling of potassium using hyperfine lines.  Used in the BEC/degenerate fermions experiment.  Started June'05
2004: ⁸⁷Rb Evaporator RF Source  Contact is Stefan Myrskog for Joseph's lab.  Analog Device's AD9854 DDS evaluation board used as a 0.1-100MHz sweep generator for evaporative cooling of rubidium using zeeman lines. Used in the BEC/degenerate fermions experiment.  A list of changes to the DDS eval board is available. Started June'04.
2005: AOM Driver Contact is Stefan Myrskog for Joseph's lab. For each of these AM and FM channels, the voltage supplied to the AOM driver can be either locally generated from a regulator and pot or remotely from a BNC.  This board was designed and made by Stefan. 2005?
2004: nS Pulse Integrator.  Contact is Robin. Integrator used to measure pulse train of 1-2nS 20-100mVp pulses. April'04
2004: TOP Coil Modulation Envelope, Slope Generator (Chris/Mirco/Aephraim)  Output tracks input but with controlled slew rate, for AM control of TOP coil drive. March'04
2005: Mini-Laser Driver.  (Krister/Aephraim)  General purpose low power laser driver, up to ~10mW, ~200mA, back facet power monitor via DMM, current limited, USB control also, AC adapter power.  Feb'04
2004: Ad-Win Digital Buffer.  (Alan/Joseph)  I/O digital buffer for the AD-WIN sequencer, to protect it from overloads, transients, ESD, etc. and to reduce EMI/RFI, coupling and ground bounce in digital outputs.  March'04
2004: "Mag-O-Matic" BEC MT/MOT/Quadrupole Coils  Contacts are Seth Aubin in Joseph's lab and Marcello/Mirco in Aephraim's lab.  Drivers for the coils which make the magnetic fields for magnetic and opto-magnetic traps.  Can run up to 100A, coils <10mH, I-t_r < 1mS, I-t_f << 1mS.  Involves 1KV transients to discharge coils and capacitors charged to 800V to charge coils.  Nov'03
2005: National Instruments Driver Boards.  (Robin).  Two types of general purpose driver boards that connect to NI's Timer/Counter modules in a Mac.  Both are optically isolated to protect the NI module and to reduce grounding issues.  One is octal open-collector for  relays, lamps, solenoids, etc., and the other is octal TTL for 50-Ohm lines.  Hand assembled. Superceeded by Labjack/National Instruments Driver Boards. Jan'04
2003: RF Phase Shifter  (Jalani/Aephram)  Fast phase shifting of 70MHz signal based on an external 10MHz signal. Jan'04
2005: AOM Driver (Seth/Joseph)  Four pages from lab books showing circuits used to buffer amplitude and frequency signals for AOMs in BEC experiment.  Dec'03